Cities of Empire Quotes

“The end of the line. Her Majesty’s Ship the Royal Yacht Britannia sails at Hong Kong harbour, 23 June 1997. The ship, which would become the floating base for Prince Charles, arrived a”
― Tristram Hunt, Ten Cities that Made an Empire

“true church, whilst the authorities appeared ever more indulgent to the unChristian pastimes”
― Tristram Hunt, Ten Cities that Made an Empire

“bridge into mainland China. It was a pleasing message of ‘business as usual’ smartly tailored to the merchant princes of the Mandarin Oriental. Few would have predicted such Sino-British ‘harmony’ (a favoured Beijing phrase) when Hong Kong was handed back to China on 30 June 1997, after the ninety-nine-year lease on the New Territories came to an end. Then, it was all tears and angst, pride and regret. At the stroke of midnight the Union Jack was lowered to the strains of ‘God Save the Queen’, the Hong Kong police ripped the royal insignia from their uniforms, and Red Army troops poured over the border. Britain’s last governor, former Conservative Party chairman Chris Patten, recorded the final, colonial swansong in all its lachrymose glory: its ‘kilted pipers and massed bands, drenching rain, cheering crowds, a banquet for the mighty and the not so mighty, a goose-stepping Chinese honour guard, a president and a prince’. Steaming out of Victoria Harbour, as the Royal Marines played ‘Rule, Britannia!’ and”
― Tristram Hunt, Ten Cities that Made an Empire