1838, Canton. Commissioner Lin Zexu demands that the British merchants surrender their opium stocks to him for destruction, all 2,500 tons of it in 20,000 cases, worth £2 million.

There is so much that it takes 500 men 23 days to destroy it all by dissolving it with lime and salt and throwing it into the sea.

Photo by Jan Jefferies (c) Anna Chen 2012