City of Lingering Splendour: A Frank Account of Old Peking's Exotic Pleasures (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781570626371)

In his early twenties, John Blofeld spent what he describes as three exquisitely happy years" in Peking during the era of the last emperor, when the breathtaking greatness of China's ancient traditions was still everywhere evident. Arriving in 1934, he found a city imbued with the atmosphere of the recent imperial past and haunted by the powerful spirit of the late Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi. He entered a world of magnificent palaces and temples of the Forbidden City, of lotus-covered lakes and lush pleasure-gardens, of bustling bazaars and peaceful bathhouses, and of "flower houses" with their beautiful young courtesans versed in the arts of pleasing men. With a novelist's command of detail and dialogue, Blofeld vividly re-creates the magic of these years and conveys to the reader his appreciation and nostalgia for a way of life long vanished.

Author: John Blofeld
ISBN-10: 1570626375
ISBN-13: 9781570626371
Publisher: Shambhala
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2001
Pages: 264
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.74h x 5.64w x 0.72d