Author’s Note

The spellings of Chinese words and place names in this book follow both the pinyin system and the Cantonese system of converting Chinese characters to the Roman alphabet. The pinyin system has been officially adopted by the People’s Republic of China since 1979 and it closely resembles actual Mandarin pronunciation. I have used this system especially when referring to certain regions within China, such as Sichuan, which I use instead of Szechuan. However, I have made an exception for the spellings of certain Cantonese names, such as Chiu Chow, which is the term you will find used in Hong Kong.