Hong Kong: Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth Book

Hong Kong has long held a fascination for travelers, and has been an inspiration to those who lived there. This new collection of writing offers remarkable insight into Hong Kong's past, with pieces that date as far back as the Song Dynasty and continue to the present day. The sixty extracts are taken from novels, poems, short stories, biographies, letters, postcards, diaries, and even speeches--many never before published--and are illustrated with contemporary photographs and sketches. Writers include Queen Victoria, Jules Verne, Rudyard Kipling, and W.H. Auden, as well as soldiers and sailors, doctors and clergymen, painters and photographers, tourists and travelers, the rich and the poor, Europeans and Chinese. Lord Palmerston comments in 1844 on the addition to the British empire, the first settlers describe and difficulties of life in the new colony, late Victorian ladies struggle with the language, heat, and social obligations, and the war years bring letters from the POW camps. Through these passages readers are given the opportunity to experience Hong Kong and its people, from past to present, in a unique and personal way.Read More