Opium War Museum
[General Introduction] – [Statue of Humen People Fighting against Opium from Britain] – [Opium Destroyed Pond] – [Exhibition Hall]
[General Introduction]
    Good morning, everybody! Welcome to the Opium War Museum in the Humen town, Dongguan city, Guangdong Province. This is a monument and historical site. It covers an area of about 30,000 square meters. Its exhibits include physical objects, historical pictures, diagrams and three grand scenes. Chinese people’s fighting against opium over 150 years ago is played here again vividly. This site reminds people of the war which shocked the world at that time.
This museum is an important base for patriotism education. Every year, more than 1,000,000 people from different parts of the world come to visit this place. Since 1991, more than 50 party and state leaders have been here. Among them are Hu Jintao, Jang Zemin and Li Peng.
They speak very highly of this site. The museum is awarded as a National 4-A Tourist Attraction. And it is singled out as a National Advanced Unit from a list of model bases for Patriotism Education.
[Statue of Humen People Fighting against Opium form Britain]
May I call your attention to the grand pink statue not far form the main entrance? The five people in the statue are dressed as fishermen. But their looks and postures tell us that they are ready to go to the battlefield at any moment. Do you know what story is behind? Well, it suggests that this site was once the soul stirring ancient battlefield. Is it hard to believe?
[Opium Destroyed Pond]
Do you see the two large ponds in the right front of the statue? They are sites of the two original opium destroyed Ponds.
Emperor Daoguang in Qing Dynasty assigned Lin Zexu to fight against opium rampant at that time. With great efforts, 1,150,000 kilograms was seized from British people on the sea
in this town. From June 3rd to 25th, 1839, Lin Zexu destroyed all the confiscated opium here in public. This worldwide-astonishing event is called Destruction of Opium in Humen. It marks the beginning of the modern history of China.
Do you have any ideas how Lin Zexu, an imperial envoy to Guangdong Province, do away with the astronomical figure of opium at that time? We know that policemen in Narcotics Division sometimes light fire to burn drugs. Did he try on a method different from burning? You might have some clue from the two ponds here, I guess.
At first, the stuff was planned to be transported to Beijing, the capital city and burned it there. Given the cost and the risks of being robbed in transport, he gave up the idea. Order came from Daoguang, the then emperor, to destroy it locally.
Should he use the commonly used method in his time? If yes, he would burn the opium with tung-oil. Then its remnants would penetrate into the soil. Opium could still be extracted from the soil. So this practice is not desirable.
With this problem in mind, he started to collect ideas from the folks. He was told that sea salt and lime could be used to dissolve opium. He adopted their ideas creatively. Let me tell you how and what he did.
The site of the two ponds was a beach 150 years ago. Lin Zexu had two pools dug. Each was 15 zhangs (that equals to 50 meters) in length and width. Pilings were used to fasten the wooden boards on the four sides of the pools. Slates were spread on the pool beds. In the front of the pools were water gates. At the back were drains. So at high tides, sea water flew into the pools; at low tides when the gates were lift open, the water was drained out into the sea along with the remains of the dissolved opium. Do you get the point? What a scientific design it is! 
Many years have passed. The former pools are gone. What we see here are the duplicates built on the same sites. The original pegs and slates excavated by archaeologists are displayed in the exhibition hall.
    Humen Beach was packed with people on those days when opium was being destroyed.
Lin Zexu led his civil and military officials here. He invited and received foreign ambassadors to Canton here. He invited and welcomed the merchants from other countries here．They were all here to witness this big event.
It took 20 days to destroy all of the forfeited opium. This action gave a message to the world that Chinese had the determination to ban opium and opium trade, to fight against foreign invasions.
It is no wonder that Lin ZeXu is a national hero and is titled as "the pioneer in the drug fighting worldwide".
[Exhibition Hall]
The main exhibition hall of the museum reflects the verve of the emplacements, doesn't it? Do you see the two pairs of stone lions in the front of the building? What adjectives can be used to describe them? "Martial". "Yes". Any other words? "Brave, heroic". "Good". This museum is surrounded by walls. And these walls are the imitations of the battlements.
The construction area of this exhibition building is 2,400 km. On the first floor is the theme about Lin Zexu's ban on opium and some historical facts related to the Opium War. This theme is subdivided into eight parts. Because of the time，I am not going to explain the details. Now I would like to draw your attention to see such physical objects as the wooden pegs and boards from the ponds, a few smoking sets, the handwritings of Lin Zexu, and some weapons used during the Opium War by Chinese soldiers and British people. These exhibits are proofs for what the British people have done to the Chinese. They reveal Chinese resistance to the invasions and pay a great tribute to Chinese people's love towards their country.
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