Hong Kong

Jan Morris (1997)

THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

Hong Kong is one of the world’s most multi-faceted cities with a fascinating history and a complicated culture. Those who really want to better understand the people and politics should read Jan Morris’ book, especially those interested in the background on the unprecedented 1997 handover of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China. Her exhaustive reporting covers the history of the opium traders, colonists, and financiers that built this metropolis, the influence of all of the different ethnic groups that now live there, and a real life view into both the roughest of back alleys and the most opulent of penthouses. Hong Kong is not really a travelogue; it is instead a very detailed and very insightful study of this exciting location. The book might actually be too detailed for many, but Morris’ remarkable storytelling ability keeps it interesting.

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OTHER A5 RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS - JAN MORRIS

Jan Morris is a well-known journalist, author, ex-spy, and as one of the world's finest travel writers, known for her portrait of cities and for the pure quality of her writing. Learn more about her by clicking here.

GREAT QUOTES:

"There has never been a treaty, in the whole history of diplomacy, quite like the Anglo-Chinese agreement on the future of Hong Kong. The Chinese held almost all the cards, politically and even perhaps morally. The British could only argue, in essence, that Hong Kong in its existing form had been extremely useful to China, and that to destroy it would benefit nobody. This argument unexpectedly prevailed. The British agreed to return the whole of Hong Kong territory to China in 1997, the Chinese agreed that it should retain its social and economic systems, and its 'life-style', for a further half-century after that, until the year 2047."
- Jan Morris, Hong Kong

"A wonderfully enlightened portrait - intelligent, insightful, lucid, up-to-the-minute, and elegantly written."
- Paul Theroux, on Hong Kong

INTERESTING LINKS:

Read the New York Times review by Frank Ching in 1988 on Hong Kong.