Her Majesty's Secret Servant / Summer 1997

As an exclusive to HMSS, Mr. Benson has kindly allowed us access to photos he took in Hong Kong, China, and Macau while doing research for his James Bond novel ZERO MINUS TEN. Many of the places shown are actual locations in the book. Enjoy your trip, as Mr. Benson guides you through this corner of the world of 007. (All text and photos © 1996, 1997 by Raymond Benson)

This is the bright Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon, a "Times Square" of Hong Kong. It is in this area that night clubs like the Zipper are located.

While the Emerald Palace is fictional, there are such things as elegant floating restaurants off Aberdeen. The famous Jumbo was the inspiration for the Emerald Palace. Yours truly with Henry Ho, the general manager of the Man Wah Restaurant atop the Mandarin Oriental, where Bond experiences "Beggar's Chicken." Henry appears as himself in the book.

As described in the book, this is a dish of chili prawns served in an ornately carved carrot at the Man Wah Restaurant.

This antique dealer had a shop on Upper Lascar Row, where I placed the fictional Hong Kong Branch of the British Secret Service. Is this T. Y. Woo?

Acting the role of secret agent. Here I am in the Lotus Suite at the Mandarin Oriental, looking at Hong Kong from the terrace. The binoculars came with the room. To the right is the building that used to be the British Government House. The last Union Jack was lowered on June 30 of this year.

	The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building plays an important part in one scene in Zero Minus Ten. Note the unusual support structure.
It was a catwalk like this where Bond saves the Chinese woman and chases the assassin in the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building.

Crash! The assassin falls on top of this, the glass roof of the atrium in the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building.

The Man Mo Temple, where Bond meets T. Y. Woo before adjourning to the antique shop.

The god Mo, the deity favored by policemen and law enforcers, as well as by criminals and the underworld.

Statue Square (facing for the former Legislative Council building) where Guy Thackeray has his press conference before his untimely demise. It's also where I speculated where the handover ceremony would be (instead, the pro-democracy groups had a rally there on June 30.)

This is a view of the countryside on the way from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, what Bond might have seen outside the train window. Note the shabby building. In two seconds of traveling you might see modern high rises sitting out there in the middle of nowhere.
	Outside the Lisboa Casino in Macau, where Bond plays a harrowing game of mahjong with Guy Thackeray. Pictures were not allowed inside, unfortunately

A view of the government buildings in Guangzhou, China. In ZMT, Bond blasts his way out of here after a showdown with General Wong.

The gaudy but impressive Sun Yat-sen Memorial building in Guangzhou, China. Bond hides here temporarily after his escape from General Wong's headquarters.

A "gweilo" in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon... dazzled by the lights, smells, and sounds. Actually, I'm standing outside the "Bottoms Up Club" (not seen in photo), which was used in the film "The Man With the Golden Gun".

©1997 by Raymond Benson