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In 1839, Lin Zexu, a Chinese official and scholar, confiscated 2.6 million pounds of opium from British traders in Guangzhou, China.  The opium trade had addicted an estimated 1 in 10 Chinese citizens.

It took hundreds of men more than 20 days to destroy the drug, burning it (one story), or mixing it with lime and salt and dumping it in open salt-water pits, in Humen, Guangdong Province, China (above).

Lin Zexu is revered as a Chinese hero: A man ahead of his time, recognizing the problems of drug abuse and addiction. His actions ultimately led to the first Opium War and Britain’s colonization of China.

Read more in the coming weeks of my trip to Humen, visiting the historic town and its link to one of the most contentious conflicts of the 19th century.