Paramount

This guide to the Paramount in Shanghai centers on the night of February 26, 1940, when star taxi dancer Chen Manli was shot dead on her way home from the ballroom, a killing that was never solved. It traces the venue's 1933 opening as the most luxurious dance hall in the Far East, built by merchant Gu Liancheng with a spring-loaded, glass floor lit from below, and the famous names who once filled the room, including Charlie Chaplin and a feared crime boss. Best appreciated from the dance floor itself, looking up at the neon-wrapped spire above.