Unlike in mainland China, there is no standard Romanization (or ‘pinyin’) of Chinese words in Hong Kong; some variety of spellings and forms, such as ‘Wanchai’ and ‘Wan Chai’, exist side by side. In this book I have tried to use the most common forms.
Confusingly, the English names of streets and places in Hong Kong are rendered in different ways:
- some are a direct translation from the Chinese, such as Central, North Point and so on;
- some are transliterated to achieve an approximation in English, such as Sheung Wan or Mongkok; and
- some English names have no apparent connection with the Chinese name in sound or meaning, such as Admiralty or Happy Valley.
All figures are expressed in Hong Kong dollars unless otherwise stated. The exchange rate is roughly $15 to the £.
The international dialling code for Hong Kong is 852.
