New York Times bestselling author Paul French (Midnight in Peking)
returns to the Chinese capital to tell 18 true stories of fascinating
people - many Americans among them - who visited the city in the first
half of the 20th century. From the ultra-wealthy Woolworths heiress
Barbara Hutton and her husband the Prince Mdivani, to the poor "American
girl" Mona Monteith, who worked in the city as a prostitute; from
socialite Wallis Simpson and novelist JP Marquand, who held court on the
rooftop of the Grand Hôtel de Pékin, to Hollywood screenwriter Harry
Hervey, who sought inspiration walking atop the Tartar Wall; from Edgar
and Helen Foster Snow - Peking's 'It' couple of 1935 - to Martha
Sawyers, who did so much to aid China against Japan in World War II;
Destination Peking brings a lost pre-communist era back to life.