Wu Ling

In the short story The Lost Mine, Wu Ling was a Chinese merchant and head of a family which possessed the map of a lost mine in Burma. A British company was interested in purchasing the map and as such, Mr Wu Ling travelled on board the S. S. Asunta which docked at Southampton and was later reported to have checked into the Russell Square Hotel in London. However, the next day, Wu Ling failed to appear at the board meeting of the British company to negotiate the sale of the map. His body was subsequently found in the Thames. The person who checked into the Russell Square Hotel (or Russell Hotel in other parts of the text) was later found to be an imposter.

Portrayals
Wu Ling only appears as a body in the police morgue in film adaptation of the story in episode 3 of Series 2 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot drama series. The body had been found somewhere in the docklands by a prostitute. Japp confirmed the identity of the body from a photo of Wu Ling which the Burmese authorities had wired across. The person who played the part of the dead Wu Ling is not credited. One of the members of the gang which killed Wu Ling did impersonate him at the St James Hotel (and not the Russell Square Hotel). This impersonator was played by Vincent Wong.

In the episode only, and not in the original story, the impersonator signed the hotel guest book as "Han Wu Ling". The person introduces himself as "Wu Ling, Han Wu Ling" and others refer to him as "Mr Wu Ling" so it is reasonable to assume that "Wu Ling" is his last name and his first name is "Han". In Chinese names, the last or family name usually comes first, but so would invert the order for convenience in countries where the last name comes at the end. In the episode only, the impersonator gave himself away (at least to Poirot) by asking for a box of matches when there was already one in his suitcase. He also wrote the date in the American date format with the month first. This did not seem to serve any plot purpose unless it was to suggest an association with Charles Lester, who was an American in the adaptation.