In 1842, a barren island was ceded by a reluctant China to an unenthusiastic Britain. Yet from the outset the new colony prospered, its early growth owing much to the energy of opium traders, who soon diversified in more respectable directions. In 1859 the Kowloon Peninsula was sold to the British Consul in Canton, and in 1898 a further area of the mainland, the New Territories, was leased to Britain for 99 years. Since World War II, Hong Kong's extraordinary economic success has made it one of the world's leading commercial centres. Yet the colony has never quite shaken off the raffishness of its early days, and it continues to be a source of embarrassment to British governments. Now, as Hong Kong's return to China in 1997 approaches, its future is the focus of worldwide attention and speculation. This account evokes Hong Kong and the characters of those who shaped it, from the gusto of the colony's buccaneering, opium-smuggling beginnings to its spectacular post-war growth.