The Westin Chosun Seoul

HISTORY IN BRIEF: "Chosen" means "Korea" in Japanese. The Chosen Hotel was to become the pearl in the necklace of Japanese rail road hotels. 1910: German architect Geothelande engaged to draw first blueprints of the proposed hotel. For four years all necessary luxurious gadgets, items and furniture that make a luxury hotel were bought from all over the world. 1913: the first "vertical railway", an elevator from Otis (USA), was imported to be installed at the new hotel. 1914: September: the Chosen Hotel opened. 1935: Serge Rubinstein, the "Cobra", is the only and first non-royal guest to stay at the hotel's Imperial Suite, room 201. Expelled of France for “endangered of finances of the republic”, the nouveau riche multimillionaire had gained control of the “Chosen Corporation”, a Korean gold mine. 1944: General Hodge (USA) billets himself at the Chosun Hotel. The hotel undergoes a name change, from Chosen to Chosun. A stonemason had his own way of changing the hotel's name from Chosen to Chosun 1950s: the hotel is the "no 1 hotel in Seoul, the capital of Korea, operated by the Government Railways of the Republic" (advertisement). 1967: demolition of the original Chosun hotel began. 1970: the new hotel opened, soon becoming the unofficial government guest house. 1979: November; Westin purchases the hotel.

1988: Giovanni Angelini