This is an updated post. I wrote the original back in 2010 after re-reading James Clavell’s Tai-Pan for the nth time. I revisited the post in 2016 after a trip to Hong Kong with three girl friends from law school. This year, the four of us are returning to Hong Kong together and I’m feeling nostalgic about the book and the place.

If you like pirate stories — if you feel that the life of pirates was steeped in adventure and romance — you’d probably enjoy the tales about pirates and smugglers that are irrevocably intertwined with the story of Hong Kong.