Hong Kong: Visiting one of Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities

A trip to New Zealand gave me the opportunity to visit one of Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities en route. Hong Kong was the first city Fleming visited on his Sunday Times-sponsored tour of the world in 1959. Time didn't permit me to follow in Fleming's footsteps exactly, but I could match him in two aspects at least.

My flight to Hong Kong was rather more straight-forward than Fleming's. Today, one takes a direct flight to Hong Kong from Heathrow. In 1959, Fleming's flight took him to Beirut, Bahrain, Delhi, and Bangkok before landing in Hong Kong. Without in-flight entertainment, Fleming needed a good book. He took a proof copy of Eric Ambler's 1959 novel, Passage of Arms. I took Fleming's lead and read the book on my flight too.

Passage of Arms, set in Malaya, Hong Kong and Singapore, follows the movement of a cache of arms, hidden by Communist insurgents, discovered by a clerk of a rubber plantation estate, and sold on to Indonesian revolutionaries through two Chinese merchants, brothers Tan Siow Mong and Tan Yam Heng, by a naive American tourist looking for adventure.

The novel is a thrilling tale of tension, excitement, comedy, well-drawn characters, vivid descriptions, torture, and a hint of lesbianism, and it's no surprise that Fleming thought the book wonderful. In the descriptions of the Tans, I was reminded of the Foo brothers with whom Major Smythe trades his stolen gold in Fleming's short story, 'Octopussy', written in 1962, and wondered whether Fleming was inspired by Ambler in this aspect.

Once in Hong Kong, Fleming's guide, journalist Richard Hughes (immortalised in You Only Live Twice as Dikko Henderson), insisted that Fleming experience an authentic Chinese meal. They visited the Peking Restaurant, where Fleming had shark's fin soup with crab, shrimp balls in oil, bamboo shoots with seaweed, chicken and walnuts, and roast Peking duckling.

I couldn't find the Peking Restaurant (does it still exist?), but did go to the Peking Garden, a cavernous and smart-looking restaurant on the third floor of an office block. It had everything that Fleming ate on the menu, including shark's fin soup with crab, but looking at the prices, I quickly realised I wasn't going to be able to replicate Fleming's meal entirely. I did, however, order the Peking duck. As with much of the food in the Bond books, Peking duck is no longer as exotic as it was in Fleming's day, but to me the dish remains special, and was delicious.

I just had time before making my way to the airport for my onward flight to visit the Peninsula Hotel, which briefly appears in the film of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). Alas, I didn't see any of its famous green Rolls Royces. Still, I'll have another chance on the return journey. Watch this space! 

Reflections on James Bond's Hong Kong

Following a recent trip to Hong Kong, guest writer Radley Biddulph reflects on how the former British colony has influenced the world of James Bond, and looks up some of the locations that appeared in the films.

It may come as a surprise to consider that Hong Kong has featured so rarely in the James Bond films. Bond has been to the former British Colony just three times (You Only Live Twice, The Man with the Golden Gun, and Die Another Day) and of these, You Only Live Twice and Die Another Day have seen the most fleeting of visits.

It is particularly surprising given the popularity of cinema in Hong Kong, its history, and the stunning scenery, most notably the skyline and natural harbour. Visit the Victoria Harbour waterfront at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, for example, and you will come across the Avenue of the Stars, celebrating many great names in Kong Kong cinema, such as Jackie Chan, John Woo, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh and, of course, Bruce Lee.

While Michelle Yeoh appears in Tomorrow Never Dies - elements of which would not have been out of place in a Hong Kong film - sadly, the Special Administrative Region itself did not feature in the story, causing you to wonder if the producers missed a trick in not devoting more time in Hong Kong.

Of the three films to feature Hong Kong, the region is most prominent in Golden Gun. (While Twice was principally set in Japan, Hong Kong was featured for Bond’s fake death and funeral - although filming actually took place in Gibraltar.)

Star Ferry

Three iconic locations in Golden Gun are the Bottoms Up Club in Tsim Sha Tsui, the wreck of RMS Queen Elizabeth in Victoria Harbour, and the Star Ferry Terminal.  Sadly for film location enthusiasts only the last remains. The Bottoms Up Club moved in 2004, and has now closed for good; while the wreck of RMS Queen Elizabeth was finally dismantled in 1975.  In contrast, with the Star Ferry remaining little changed for decades (many of the ferries date back to the 1950s), the location, visited by Bond, satisfyingly evokes the era of Golden Gun.

One other place that still appears to have little changed – at least from the outside - is the Peninsula Hotel. It was there that Bond meets Scaramanga’s mistress, Andrea Anders, and it was also at the hotel (albeit with a different name) that Bond, in Die Another Day, walked in soaking wet seeking a room following his prisoner exchange and subsequent escape from MI6.  Inside, the foyer as it appears in Die Another Day is less busy than in real life and the soaking wet Bond would probably have had to walk past a queue of tourists patiently waiting for afternoon tea. The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club also features in the film although when Bond climbs out from Victoria Harbour it is clear that he is on Kowloon, and not Hong Kong Island, where the yacht club is, in fact, situated.

Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong

I mentioned Bruce Lee earlier and doubtless the boom in martial arts films in the 1970s and of Lee’s own popularity were in part a factor in the producer’s decision to turn to South East Asia.  It is a pity that the martial arts theme was not better used.  While films such as Fist of Fury (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973) are well-known, it is another of Lee’s films, albeit released after his death, Game of Death (1978) that has elements that would not have been out of place in Golden Gun.

In Game of Death, the Red Pepper Restaurant, located on Causeway Bay, is the scene for some classic martial arts, culminating in Lee’s character, who, on entering a dojo from the restaurant, has to fight a different protagonist on each floor before he locates the crime syndicate boss he is searching. These are familiar elements in Golden Gun, in which Bond takes on martial arts students one-by-one in a dojo, but then this is rather undone by the intervention of Bond’s local contact, Lieutenant Hip and his two nieces, who unconvincingly defeat the entire dojo.

Perhaps this is looking too deeply into the films. The Bond of Roger Moore incorporated popular themes throughout the 70s: the Blaxploitation theme in Live and Let Die, and the space theme in Moonraker are two such examples.  But taking a more serious storyline was not unknown during Moore’s time – For Your Eyes Only is the obvious example – and the tone of the films has become increasingly less light-hearted with all subsequent Bond actors.  Having visited Hong Kong myself earlier this year, it would be good to see Daniel Craig’s Bond going to Hong Kong and to see elements of its history, scenery and culture being incorporated in Bond in a way which celebrates what makes Hong Kong particularly unique, rather than pretending it is somewhere – or something - else.