Peking, 18 August 1967: With many foreign embassies already battered and defaced in a wave of mindless xenophobia, a frenzied mob invades the home of the only British journalist in China at midnight, yelling: 'Hang Grey! Hang Grey!' Then instead of lynching him, they hang his cat in his face and hold him hostage in total isolation for 2 years. Beijing, 8 August 2008: Athletes and spectators from all the countries of the world gather for the planet's greatest four-yearly festival of friendship and peaceful rivalry - the Olympic Games. To this account of a harrowing ordeal which symbolises the troubled China of the late 1960s, Anthony Grey now adds his personal insights into how much the world's most populous country has changed since then -- and how his own life has also been profoundly altered and influenced by his China experience.
