I’ll be at the library today so I’ll see if I can check it out. Sounds interesting but I hope they at least get to dress down for the beach.
Actually, at the very end of the book, the “foreign devils” (non-members of the Han phyle) have to evacuate China (the Boxer Rebellion is being repeated) and they do so by walking into the sea (nanotechnology makes this a viable exit route) and the last Victorian gentleman leaves the mainland — “As the sea rose over him, it lifted the bowler from his head, and the hat continued to bob on the tide for some minutes”.