The Peking Express: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China

by James M Zimmerman

The thrilling true story of train-robbing revolutionaries and passengers who got more than they paid for in this Murder on the Orient Express –style adventure, set in China’s republican era.
 
In May 1923, when Shanghai publisher and reporter John Benjamin Powell bought a first-class ticket for the Peking Express, he pictured an idyllic overnight journey on a brand-new train of unprecedented luxury—exactly what the advertisements promised. Seeing his fellow passengers, including mysterious Italian lawyer Giuseppe Musso, a confidante of Mussolini and lawyer for the opium trade, and American heiress Lucy Aldrich, sister-in-law of John D. Rockefeller Jr., he knew it would be an unforgettable trip.
 
Charismatic bandit leader and populist rabble rouser Sun Mei-yao had also taken notice of the new train from Shanghai to Peking. On the night of Powell’s trip of a lifetime, Sun launched his plan to make a brazen political he and a thousand fellow bandits descended on the train, capturing dozens of hostages.
 
Aided by local proxy authorities, the humiliated Peking government soon furiously gave chase. At the bandits’ mountain stronghold, a five-week siege began.
 
Brilliantly written, with new and original research, The Peking Express tells the incredible true story of a clash that shocked the world—becoming so celebrated it inspired several Hollywood movies—and set the course for China’s two-decade civil war.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China, True Crime, Crime, Historical, Asia

439 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Christopher Febles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I really fell off the wagon, huh? Finished this twelve days ago, never got around to reviewing it. Busy week. Sorry, I suck.

The detail is tremendous in this bold tale of century-hold train heist. How he gathered information and interviews from rural bandits from long ago I have no idea. It struck me as a hybrid news item / novel: lots of information, some newspaper reports, then a few harrowing tales of escape. I almost felt bad for what happened to the kidnappers. It’s fast-paced, written simply, easy to read and not very many slow parts. Good personal histories of the principal actors. Strong research told in a compelling way.

History buffs will love it!

[Donna Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

History lovers will love this book. Those reading for scholarly or research purposes should find it extremely useful.

I tend to read primarily for entertainment and found I was captivated at points, but occassionally felt dragged along at others.

There's no denying it's a fine book, though. Well written and thoroughly researched.

Bonus: PICTURES!! 🤩

PS -- best to read a physical copy so you can easily bookmark and flip between the handy tools provided such as maps, character list and end notes (these are worth perusing).

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 3 out of 5]

A train full of wealthy passengers, both foreign and Chinese, is wending its way across the country to Peking. But after being taken hostage by bandits, their plight goes from bad to worse as geopolitics rear their head too.

In the summer of 1923, Chinese bandits robbed a luxurious train and took over 300 of its passengers hostage, including many foreign citizens. As the situation became worse and the consequences mounted, it became an international crisis that eventually struck a blow against the stability of the Chinese government. However, having become overshadowed by other events during this turbulent time in Chinese history, there isn't a lot of English language material out there about it.

The author does a good job of balancing the political and personal sides of the story, allowing us to see how the hostage drama comprises only the innermost circle of the crisis. There's a lot of context needed to understand how the situation ended up so convoluted, and we get that in spades. I came away feeling like I'd learned a lot about early twentieth-century China in the microcosm of this book.

However, I did feel like the writing got dry or repetitive on occasion, which made the hostages' predicament feel less impactful sometimes. I also really wished that we learned more about the predicament of the Chinese hostages or the mountaintop children - while their stories are referenced, it's mostly in relation to the foreign hostages. Maybe their stories were skated over because there were less resources available about them or because it would have been beyond the scope of the story the author was trying to tell, but either way I definitely felt the omission.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Cropredy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly a story I knew nothing about and apparently, a story that captivated the world as it played out over weeks.

You are thrust back in 1923 China, a few years into being a republic yet basically a weak central government with innumerable warlords who battled each other for power and wealth. Throw in disaffected former soldiers (because they hadn't been paid) who have turned to banditry and you have a melange of modernity, back breaking immiseration, weak institutions, opportunists, and idealists.

Certainly a period of China I was not familiar with.

The title pretty much sums up the story -- a luxury train (at least for those in first class) from Shanghai to Peking (as it was known in 1923), is waylaid by a large force of bandits intent on ransoming the hostages for money. The reason we know about this story is that many of the hostages were prominent Westerners, including the sister-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, titan of Standard Oil.

You get your sadistic bandits, your colorful bandits, your stalwart captives, a few children and plenty of perfidious Chinese generals intent on their own glory who attempt to wipe out the bandits (collateral damage be damned).

Of course, the hostages are kept in miserable conditions (especially compared to what they were used to). Remonstrations are made. Negotiators of all sorts descend. There are escapes, humanitarian releases, and even President Harding makes an appearance.

Based on a rich trove of first hand accounts and a deep dive into written sources in both Chinese and European languages, the author does a pretty good job of keeping your interest. There are two important maps and the text is sprinkled with photos.

Now, I gave this only 4 stars despite what would seem to be an exciting tale -- a train is stopped in the middle of the night, passengers are terrorized and then marched into the hills in their night clothes. Who escapes? who survives? who dies?

But, because the story spans several weeks, it didn't quite have that tick-tock pace that other human drama stories that I've rated 5 stars (for example -

Escape From Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War ,

The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche,

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster or

Coming Back Alive: The True Story of the Most Harrowing Search and Rescue Mission Ever Attempted on Alaska's High Seas

Still, an enjoyable and interesting story especially as it is unlikely you have heard about it. Provides some insight into why the Communists were able to rise to power so it has relevance for today.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent book. It begins with a trainload of passengers being captured by Chinese bandits and held hostage for ransom in 1923. Wealthy or not, foreign passengers are kept alive and treated reasonably well as they are prospective candidates for ransom. Native Chinese are brutalized and several are executed. It is the story of a local event that became a worldwide geopolitical mess as the countries the foreign nationals hailed from: United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Romania and Mexico. The book shows the fortitude of the hostages and their care for each other as well as the work done by non-governmental people to bring the local warlord and the bandits to the negotiating table.

For a history book, I found this to be a very fast paced book and an absolute page turner. Whether or not you are interested in Chinese history in the 1920, this book is a real page turner. I highly recommend it. It is one of the best I have read this year.

[Ari Katz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was pretty disappointed by this book. For such a dramatic event, the author never really figures out how to tell a compelling story. It's more like just an account, you're never really on the edge of your seat. The characters are never really developed beyond cursory sketches, so you have no stake in the outcome. Feels like a really wasted opportunity - it could have gripping story in a detailed historical setting. Instead it's just a meandering list of events. It's also weirdly written at like a middle school level. It was tough to get through.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up
Fascinating account of a true crime committed in China in the 1930s. The attention to detail is amazing

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a historical event with some intrigue, but I'm not sure there's an entire book here, and if there is, it isn't this one. Zimmerman seems like a cool guy, and someone whose interest maybe just doesn't match up with the available materials? Anyway, I found this to slog pretty significantly after the first few chapters, and the case for why this is meaningful history - and not just one singularly interesting event - is weak. Could've been a nice magazine article instead of 300+ pages, IMO.

The one thing I did walk away from is the reminder that China's current totalitarian state has to be set against hundreds, if not thousands, of years of various civil wars, warlord-run territories, and uneven, decentralized authority. Their anti-democratic government is bad for the world, but it isn't historically inevitable and it doesn't come from nowhere. But this isn't a point the book is really interested in, so again: not much here.

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The overall title of this book is a bit of an oversell. Yes, there are bandits, whose leadership wanted to use the hijacking as a means of challenging the local warlord. Yes, there were enough elite Western passengers on the train in question (including, of all people, John D. Rockefeller's sister-in-law) to grab international attention. As for whether it broke the Republic of China, well, that nation's government was really a dead man walking, due to the rise of the warlords reaching its zenith; though this event did torpedo a conference to address the issue of extraterritoriality and the citizens of Western states in China.

Seeing as Zimmerman is something of a modern "China Hand," you can see why he would want to tackle this story, as he can no doubt relate to the foreign adventurers, journalists, and operators who were the core of the hostages, and whose personal accounts provide the foundation for his book. So, even if his treatment does seem a little shallow, the author has done the heavy lifting, including tracing the route the hostages were dragged on once the train was abandoned, so I have to grant Zimmerman respect on that point. Finally, as for the title, Zimmerman does make a good argument that the 1932 film "Shanghai Express," which featured Marlene Dietrich, was probably a cultural memory of this incident.

Rounding up from 3.5.

[Bon · Rating 4 out of 5]

No notes. Fascinating and riveting, this book explained an audacious and daring act born from mens' desperation amid political unrest and economic disparity. I'm impressed by the author researching all this from within Chinese borders in modern times. David Shih was an excellent narrator, lines in Mandarin near the ended sounded great.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be an very interesting book, and the subject one I hadn't heard of before, it being a luxury train express running from Shanghai to Peking in the early 1920's, which was hijacked by Chinese bandits trying to force the government to pay its soldiers instead of forcing them to turn to banditry to feed themselves and their families. This period of time was one of great upheaval in China, as well as around the world. The haves and have nots were polar opposites, with the haves in a distinct minority but ostentatious in showing their wealth, as opposed to the horrible conditions the rest of the country's populace lived in. How events transpired over a month of negotiations for the release of the hostages, and how the Chinese basically were working for the release of really only the foreign prisoners, as opposed to the many more Chinese ones, was eye opening.

This was an interesting topic for a book set in this time period, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC to read and review.

[Karen Jaeckels · Rating 4 out of 5]

For history buffs, this is a true story about a train robbery and kidnapping in China 100 years ago. Meticulously researched, this book gives an insight to the turbulence in China that we still see today. I saw the author give a talk about how he tracked down families of survivors and delved through museum archives and visited the locations to tell this story. Although this incident made international headlines 100 years ago, I knew nothing about it. Worth the read!

[Mike Troilo · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who would like an entertaining picture of China in the 1920s, this is a must read. The story of how bandits derailed the Peking Express combines the best elements of history, true crime, and travel, and paints an unforgettable picture of the warlord period in 20th Century China.

[Kaye Acosta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a history buff’s dream. Impeccably researched and told in a narrative style that reads like a thriller novel, I love when I get to learn about an episode in history that I’d never heard of. It was a little hard keeping all the characters and names straight while listening to the audiobook, but the author did a great job of explaining the complexity of Chinese politics in the 1920s. Loved it.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a fascinating story, I enjoyed learning about the incident, and this period in Chinese history. The author has done meticulous research, however it was written more like a non fiction documentary as opposed to a novel, which I think I would have enjoyed more.

[David Gao · Rating 3 out of 5]

With an upcoming family trip to Taiwan on the horizon, I thought it was apropos to wind back the clock 100 years and learn about China before communism (Shen Yun is not my cup of tea no matter how many flyers they may pass out). And indeed, Zimmerman's retelling of Sun Mei Yao's group of bandits attacking the bougie Peking Express provided a decent snapshot of an era of China that I previously knew very little about.

Unfortunately, after the initial train robbery, the plight of the hostages trekking the countryside was not the most gripping tale to follow (will have to see if Shanghai Express, the 1932 Hollywood flick which was inspired by the same incident, brings more entertainment). My main takeaways focused on how dramatically things have changed in some ways (no more rogue bandits exchanging bullets with the Chinese military while taking hostages for political gain), and how similar things remain in other ways (foreign hostages being treated better than Chinese hostages).

As far as narrative nonfiction goes, this was the rare story that I found myself relating to personally, at least in a modern day sense. I have extended family still living in the Shandong province today. I've taken a bullet train between Beijing and Shanghai, stopping in Jinan. And I've mingled with ex-pats in China. Thinking about the various parties involved in the Lincheng Outrage, it's mind-boggling to think about how different my life would have been had I been born 100 years earlier.

3.5/5

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intersting book easily read and covers a priod in China after the Boxer revolution and before the Janpan invasion and the sacking of Kanking ect. A good story and easy read.

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came for the train attack, but I stayed for the early 1900s geopolitics.

James Zimmerman's The Peking Express tells the story of a train robbery and kidnapping in 1923 China. When I started the book, I expected a non-fiction thriller where each page contained heart pounding near misses and intrigue. I was only half right as there is plenty of intrigue but not a lot of thriller. And that is a good thing.

The book spends very little time on the actual train abductions and quickly transitions into a chess match between Chinese rebels and representatives of a very wobbly government. Another author might try to wring as much they can out of the train portions, but Zimmerman keeps the story moving and expertly explains the political environment of China during this time period without ever getting bogged down. We meet a lot of people, but we learn just enough about everyone to make them memorable before moving on to the next plot point.

This book could have gone wrong in many ways. However, Zimmerman keeps it interesting, fast, and informative without losing the reader's interest.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and PublicAffairs. The full review will be posted to HistoryNerdsUnited.com on 4/6/2023.)

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHEN BANDITS TOPPLED THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT

China has suffered through a series of titanic convulsions over the past two centuries. The Opium Wars, when the West seized control of the country. The Taiping Rebellion, which killed thirty million, and the Boxer Rebellion, when the West occupied Beijing. Fall of the Qing Dynasty. Japanese occupation (1937-45). And the civil war that led to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Not to mention the famine, deprivation, and terror later fostered by Mao Zedong. So, against this backdrop the Lincheng Incident a century ago may seem to deserve merely a footnote. But in its way the events described in James M. Zimmerman’s engrossing account of the incident, The Peking Express, also helped shape the course of Chinese history—and the country’s relationship to the outside world. Then, a century ago, a Chinese hostage crisis “broke the Republic of China.”

THEY ROBBED A TRAIN AND TOOK HOSTAGES

As Zimmerman notes in a prologue, “China’s newly launched express trains—a showcase of its modernity—passed right through the heart of bandit country, their seats filled with prominent and wealthy passengers traveling back and forth between the raucously cosmopolitan city of Shanghai and the nation’s more austere but still thriving capital, Peking.” And on May 5, 1923, a dozen years after the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, a massed force of more than 1,000 bandits derailed the Peking Express on its way northward from Shanghai, thoroughly looted the train, and took at least 300 passengers as hostages. It would take weeks to understand why.

A CHINESE HOSTAGE CRISIS THAT RIVETED THE WORLD’S PRESS

Had those ” prominent and wealthy passengers” all been Chinese, few outside the country would never have known. But among them were 25 Westerners. John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s sister-in-law. Two American newsmen and two US Army majors. An extremely wealthy Italian lawyer close to Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. A group of major players in Shanghai’s Jewish community. A few others. And “a French veteran of the Great War who worked as a senior official with the Chinese Salt Administration.”

The bandits prized all these people. There were also scores of well-to-do Chinese citizens. But “to the bandit gang, the Chinese captives had little ransom value, so they were simply murdered if they proved troublesome or if the bandits wanted to make an example of them to keep their other hostages in line.”

WARLORDS, BANDITS, AND STARVING PEASANTS

In the populous province of Shantung (today called Shandong) in northeastern China, a brutal warlord held sway in the capital a century ago. But bandits roamed freely in the southern reaches of the province. The warlord waged a ceaseless “bandit eradication” campaign but had never succeeded in pacifying the south. The largest of the outlaw bands—numbering at least 1,000 men and women, and continually growing—was led by two men.

The commander in chief of this so-called Self-Governed Army for the Establishment of the Country was Sun Mei-yao. Sun was twenty-five years old and “saw himself as a soldier, not a thief. . . His aims were revolutionary.” His second-in-command, known as Po-po Li, was in fact a thief and murderer with a long criminal record.

Sun commanded some 700 men, Li about 300, at the beginning of May 1923 when Zimmerman’s story began. Their combined force grew to several thousand as the hostage crisis unfolded.

A FASCINATING STORY AND WELL TOLD

Author James Zimmerman uncovered facts and insights like this through meticulous research into primary sources, a great many of them hitherto hidden from public scrutiny. Day by day through the nearly two months of the hostage crisis, he follows the action that unfolded in the train, during the attack, on the march with the hostages, and in the Chinese cabinet in Beijing (then Peking). Much of his account focuses on the weeks-long negotiations between representatives of the US, British, French, Italian, and Chinese governments with Sun Mei-yao, Po-po Li, and their sub-chiefs. It’s a fascinating story and well told.

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

After two and a half centuries, the Manchu dynasty ruling China fell to republican forces in 1911. For a brief time, under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, the forces of reform held out hope for a peaceful and prosperous future. But it was not to last. In fact, the Republican government never managed to assert control over most of the country. In province after province, warlords seized control. Some nominally supported the central government. Most did not. And almost everywhere desperate and disillusioned men and women defiantly struck out against the tyranny the warlords imposed. They all came to be called “bandits.” In truth, many were criminals. But most were either former soldiers released after the government lost in its attempt to oust the warlords—or starving peasants forced to take up arms.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

According to his publisher, the Hachette Book Group, “James M. Zimmerman is a Beijing-based lawyer who has lived and worked in China for over 25 years. He is among China’s leading foreign lawyers and represents companies and individuals confronted with the political and legal complexities of doing business in Mainland China. He is the author of the China Law Deskbook, published by the American Bar Association, and is frequently featured as a political commentator on US-China relations in various print and broadcast media around the globe.

Zimmerman is the former four-term Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. In addition to Beijing, he maintains a home in San Diego, California.” Zimmerman is a partner in the Beijing office of Perkins Coie LLP and counsels foreign companies on corporate, transactional, regulatory, litigation, and white collar criminal defense matters in China.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher PublicAffairs for an advanced copy of this history book featuring bandits, trains, wealthy Europeans and Chinese politics.

As an American the idea of stopping and robbing a train is not new. Plenty of westerns, from the lowest oater to the biggest of Hollywood spectacles have desperados stopping trains with logs, explosives, removing a bridge, or even tying a heroine to the rail. Trains usually have something, and being an outlaw is expensive. The same can be said of being a warlord in China when the government was at its weakest and lots of men had rifles and really nothing better to do with them, then brigandry. Especially if this warlord had a lot of men, an a lot of hopes for raising himself and his men to much loftier heights. Well that luxury train passing through his territory, loaded with rich Europeans and many sparkling things would be quite a tempting target. James M. Zimmerman in his book The Peking Express: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China discusses this real robbery, what happened and how both China and other suffered from these events.

The book begins with a journalist catching a train. The Peking Express was the most luxurious of trains, capable of bringing passengers from the city of Shanghai, to the capital of China in style and comfort over some of the beautiful scenery imaginable. And the most dangerous. For every elegant dining car, with temperature controlled rooms with rest rooms, the train also had mounted machine gun nests, security troops and bulletproof rail cars to protect the train from bandits. The outer areas were in the hands of various warlords who fought and stole anything they could, as desperate men who are armed are very dangerous men. The journalist starting his trip was John Benjamin Powell, a publisher and reporter who had made his career covering events in China, on his first trip on the Peking Express. Joining him were a diverse cast of Europeans and Americans from business leaders, to gamblers, military men, and opium dealers. These travellers paths soon cross with Sun Mei-yao a very charismatic warlord, with a large group of men and a dream. Stop the Peking Express, steal everything of value including food, and use the wealthy as hostages to get the Chinese Government to recognize Sun Mei-yao and his men as members of the Chinese army. And these two sides collided, with violent consequences.

A very well told story about a time and era that I knew more from adventure novels or even reading old copies of Terry and the Pirates. Zimmerman did a lot of research and it shows, the way the train is described, conversations taken from diaries, the way the bandits attacked. The book reads like a pulp novel in spots, but never loses the fact that this is all history and that real people were living through these moments, not characters in a book. The action on the train is very well done, as is the negotiations and explanations of what was being done to make sure this situation could be solved without either side losing face, which was very important to all. A very well written history.

Recommended for readers of Chinese history and for those who remember reading stories about pirates and warlords in China, just to find out what the real story was. A perfect gift for Father's Day for those who enjoy different looks at history.

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

In May 1924, a politically motivated bandit army conducted a heist of the Peking Express, capturing the passengers in what would become a months long odyssey into the hinterlands of China. It is a narrative of governmental disfunction, colonialism, cruelty, imprisonment, comradeship, ideals and a surprising sing-a-long.

James Zimmerman's The Peking Express: the Bandits Who Stole A Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China examines this event , eventually known as the Lincheng Incident (or Outrage), chronologically. Drawing from the official records, newspaper coverage, photos, artifacts, landscape and first hand accounts. At this time, China was a troubled, destabilized nation. Following the world powers (Great Britain, Germany, France, USA and Japan) colonial expansion into China with political force and military might, the Chinese government had been drastically weakened with warlords taking control in regional spaces.

It is in this latter rise of warlords, that gave rise to the banditry. Sun Mei-yao, the leader, had been a soldier who was seeking back payment and reinstatement for both him and his men. He also had lofty aspirations to overthrow the government. His plan was to ambush the Peking Express and take as many hostages as possible and to use them as bargaining chips to attain his goals.

These goals are contrasted with the privileged position of the westerners aboard the train, protected by treaty enshrined extraterritoriality. The hostages would include US army officers, a car dealership owner, a distinguished publisher, an Italian lawyer, and John D. Rockefeller’s sister-in-law. Alongside these high profile international hostages, the bandits also captured Chinese citizens, some of them with status or wealth. These latter hostages were treated with more cruelty, and were far more likely to be shot, their bodies abandoned.

Zimmerman distilled archival sources, masterfully differentiates the subjects by using the voices of the hostages and officials. This allows us to get some idea of the bandits, too, through the explanation of nick-names or day to day life as hostages. However, this also means dealing with the racist or condescending perspectives of the westerners for the Chinese. It is a wide cast of figures, and the book does include a listing of the different people of the book, alongside their roles and nation.

While the incident is almost a century in the past, many of the causes are still afflicted our contemporary world. There is still a large disparity between the wealthy and the destitute. Treatment of peoples according to their nationality or whiteness cause social inequities. Corruption seems endemic of many of the governments of the world.

I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zimmerman's close history of an incident in 1923 China, where bandits derailed the Shanghai to Peking Express and held most of its passengers for ransom, well, it all begins somewhat choppy. That is to be expected in a book, however, that has so many real, historical personages in it. And so very quickly Zimmerman overcomes the start and ends up with an utterly fascinating book. He has a good story to work with, and he makes the most out of it. It often reads like a work of fiction or seems like a movie. In fact, in 1932 the events were fashioned into a now classic movie, Shanghai Express, with Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Warner Oland.

But never mind the movie. Anyone interested in China between the world wars will find this story captivating. Many familiar names pop up, Carl Crow and Roy Anderson, for example, but there are some new ones as well. I was not familiar with the bandit leaders, who, despite their brutal and murderous ways come out more pathetic at the end than evil. It's a good look at the warlord years in China in microscopic detail. All the politics, foreign and Chinese, that made China such a tragic place comes together.

About the research and writing. Zimmerman details his time in the actual places where events took place. It shows in the book he finished, because the atmosphere seems authentic, the places take on a living sense that Zimmerman no doubt absorbed into his own experiences. If there is one thing that does break the spell, unfortunately, it's at the very beginning. There, Zimmerman feels the need to go all preachy about the "poison of racism." Well, you can see all that. Let events speak for themselves. Let people's words reveal the era. To his credit, Zimmerman does that pretty much after the first couple of chapters. It's as if his editor wanted to vaccinate him and the book against any anti-Asian bias. Okay. That's alright. But people should be aware of how people thought, talked, and wrote at that time. And on both sides, too. The colonial and racist attitudes of the European officials may have had the force of authority behind them, but race and ethnocentrism is not something missing from Asian nations either. It's just the way things were--and are. Asian countries tend to be rather homogenous in terms of their ethnic populations. See Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam. There is no need to force-feed Western attitudes, obsessions, and beliefs onto people who really don't want and will refuse to accept them. Like I say, however, Zimmerman quickly undergoes his inoculation and moves on to the meat of the matter in the rest of the book.

[Michael Hassel Shearer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Peking Express: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned The West, and Broke The Republic of China by James M. Zimmerman
Mr. Zimmerman who is an attorney with 25 years of experience in China tells in wonderful detail the story of bandits capturing a train and holding hostage many foreigners some for up to 37 days before negotiations result in their release. The captives read like characters from an Agatha Christie novel but this is a true story. I have read parts of this story in the books by J.B. Powell a journalist and newspaper owner in Shanghai who was one of the captives as well as books by Carl Crow who was a Shanghai business man who organized providing supplies to the hostages. But this thoroughly research book tells the complete story using diaries and notes from some of the hostages now almost 100 years later. What I also like about the story was you could end up with sympathy for Sun Mei-yao the bandit leader who was not looking for money but instead dignity. He was asking that he and his bandits be paid, clothed and armed and made members of the Chinese Army which they had once been. The negotiations would not have ended successfully without the negotiations of Roy Anderson and American born in China who understood the necessity of finding a way for the bandits as well as the equally corrupt local army general to save face. This is Mr. Zimmerman’s first non-legal book and he has written an excellent story with detail and flow. I highly recommend this book for those interested in China during it’s early years after emperor rule when chaos reigns.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb for this audiobook says "thrilling" though the only exciting parts, for me, were (1) the bandits entering the train, and (2) the surprise at the Temple of the Clouds on the mountain. Much of the story covered the long, struggling treks with the hostages and their eyewitness accounts of the bandits (some amusing), the landscape, and the villages, which provided an interesting view of China in 1923. Then came the drawn-out negotiations between the bandits, the new republican government in Peking, the ambassadors from the various Western countries, and the hostages themselves.

The action was often plodding with too many names to remember, but still with interesting details. A few of the characters were memorable, like some of the wacky bandits, and the feisty Ms. Aldridge, a short, plump, rich member of the Rockefeller family.

This was a fascinating time in Chinese history as the dynasty had collapsed and the country was struggling as a nascent republic, before the next phase began -- a full Japanese invasion and WWII. This event had an effect on China's history and I'm glad I read it before moving on to more books of this time period.

The fact that I've been to Shanghai, Tianjin, and Peking (Beijing) made it more real, though my trip was much later, of course, in the 1980s.

Recommended! Preferably as a printed book, as the audiobook had no pictures or maps.

[Allen Fan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Peking Express" provides a vivid and gripping account of the lesser-known Lincheng Incident, featuring the launch of the Peking Express, a hostage crisis, and the quest for recognition and power by an outlaw bandit group in a mountain stronghold. This narrative serves as a metaphor for the political and cultural landscape of early twentieth-century China and the world.

China's history swings between order and chaos, a theme highlighted by Zimmerman's extraordinary research in the book. Zimmerman effectively illustrates two enduring aspects of China: 1) Its internal divisions as perceived by its own people and 2) Its "unified" image in the eyes of foreigners. The book also illuminates how foreign influence, whether real or perceived, has put and continues to put considerable strain on China's path to sovereignty and self-determination on the global stage.

"The Peking Express" offers a thought-provoking exploration of China's complex identity in the New World and its ongoing struggle to reconcile internal divisions under the close eye of external perceptions. Zimmerman's work is a captivating and insightful addition to the literature on this critical period in China's history, making it a super fascinating read for my recent interest in the time period and surrounding regions, in China's past and its continuing efforts to define its global role.

I wish there were more pictures from the Temple on the Clouds.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting and deeply researched study of an incident in 1923 that at the time had widespread international interest and gives insights into this period in the development of modern China. The core of the story describes how disgruntled bandits derailed a luxury train, taking about 100 hostages, including 25 Westerners, who represented the major European players as well as Mexico. While the “Lincheng Incident” is little more than a footnote in most histories of the period, the story is fascinating for the insights into this pivotal time in China. The book abounds with details, culled from personal diaries of the captives, the few official documents, as well as the abundance of contemporary newspaper accounts. I found the book interesting for the depth of details as well as the ease with which the author weaves in the historical background. I also appreciated how the author returns his focus to the incident itself as well as the political and historical ramifications instead of spending too much time on the life and times of the captives, which is often the case in these types of histories. We see just enough of the Western captives’ backgrounds to form a sense of them, but not enough to overshadow the story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and thank the author for contributing to the understanding of this often-forgotten period in modern Chinese history.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fascinating narrative about the hijacking of a luxury passenger train, from Shanghai bound for Beijing. It was 1923, the warlord era. China didn’t really have a functioning government, because bandits and warlords marauded throughout the country terrorizing villagers and using violence as their tool of choice.

Two dozen fancy foreigners, some rich Chinese, and a lot of regular folk Chinese were on the train that was attacked by a thousand bandits. They were hoping for a lot of ransom money as well as being able to rejoin the Chinese military from which they had been let go without their pay.

The book took us through the weeks of captivity that saw outraged foreign governments and angry rival warlords fighting, chasing, hiding out. Some prisoners escaped but others had to live with the bandits for weeks. I found it so interesting that the bandits allowed daily supply deliveries to feed and aid and even entertain the prisoners. There was daily mail delivery! They got tobacco, fresh water, cameras, books, clothing.

I wish that the author had inserted into the narrative more of the cogent analysis that was provided in the too-short epilogue. He made really daring comparisons between that lawless time and today’s China where he sees that “Today, economic inequality and systematic corruption continue to bedevil the leadership in power, just as in 1923.”

[Renata Stuhlberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone who is interested in real stories, history and China. It could be an interesting Netflix show.

The Peking Express captures a really interesting moment in the history of China, in between the downfall of the empire and before the Communist Revolution, in a time when the country attracted foreign wealthy investors and expats but also lived amidst a chaotic political situation dominated by the fragmented political power warlords and under the threat of bandits around the country.

The Peking Express episode, though only a footnote in history (as the author mentions himself) is the perfect metaphor to illustrate the contrasts of this particular moment in China's history.

This is a great story, with interesting characters and leadership aspects to explore further. However, the book is a a bit too long (especially the middle of it), with too many characters and sometimes repetitive situations during the hostage period.

Some aspects that were interesting, on the other hand, were not covered nearly enough, like the relief of the children and what happened to them. The last chapters, when the book talks about the aftermath of the characters, were the most interesting and touching.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zimmerman’s telling of the 1923 Lincheng incident where bandits attacked a train and took passengers, mostly westerners, as hostages to release on seeing their demands met. There are really two central stories in the incident. The first is about those hostages, who walked for miles, one with jewels hidden in her shoe, another who stood up to the bandits, and the things they ate on the way.. The second story is about the bandits themselves, the conditions that drove them to the action, and how they were seen in the community and are now seen in Chinese history. Zimmerman decided to tell the first story and although he made some positive comments about the bandits and how the captives came to see their captors, this part of story is left very much in the background until his dealing with the international attempts to release the hostages and the negotiations that took place nearing the end. It’s a fairly good read but its emphasis on the hostages made it much weaker for me than it might have been.

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am mostly a reader of fiction, but every now and then, I find an interesting non-fiction book.
This was a well-written and thoroughly researched book. I was intrigued from the first page.
I felt like I was reading an adventure/ thriller / espionage story.
I kept bookmarks in the maps pages, the cast of characters pages, and the footnotes pages. The photos were amazing. As complex as these events were, as well as China's political situation at the time, Mr. Zimmerman's writing was easy enough to follow. He was very invested in the situation, and the men and women involved. He linked the past and present when he visited the actual locations where the events occurred.
I was moved by the acknowledgements at the end of the book where he wrote about getting access to documents and memorabilia from family descendants of some of the hostages.