The clinical and pathological features of colorectal carcinoma occurring in 470 Chinese patients in Hong Kong are reported. There was a preponderance of advanced stages of the disease in spite of the presence of a large number of well-differentiated lesions. Polyposis coli was the predisposing cause in 1% of our patients, and none of them had ulcerative colitis. The clinical features of our patients on presentation were generally similar to those exhibited by Caucasians. An abdominal mass was palpable in about half of patients with colonic lesions, and virtually all rectal cancers could be felt by rectal examination. Almost a quarter of our patients presented with complications. In 2% of our patients the initial diagnosis was acute appendictis. A high resection rate was achieved, but many radical resections turned out to be only palliative. Our operative mortality was 8.3%, although for social reasons, the "in-hospital" mortality was 19.2%. The corrected five-year survival rate was 42.7% when curative resection was attempted.