The Opium War Museum

The Opium War Museum is located in the south of Hukou village, Humen Town, Dongguan City. It is also the ancient battlefield of the Opium War. With niubeiji mountain in the East and the Pearl River Estuary in the west, it is a special museum for collecting, displaying and studying Lin Zexu's anti smoking and Opium War cultural relics.

The Opium War Museum

The Museum of destructed Opium War (Humen Lin Zexu Memorial, naval warfare Museum, three names and a group) is located in Humen, Dongguan, Guangdong. It is a special museum combining Memorial and site. The former site of Lin Zexu's smoke pool and Humen fort is the national key cultural and cultural preservation unit. It is a historical witness during the Opium War period, with an area of about 800 thousand square meters.

Development history

The Museum of destructed Opium War (Humen Lin Zexu Memorial Museum, naval warfare Museum, three names and a group), located in Humen, Dongguan, Guangdong, is a special museum combining Memorial and site. The former site of Lin Zexu's smoke pool and Humen fort is a key cultural and cultural preservation unit in the country. It is a historical witness during the Opium War period, with an area of about 800 thousand square meters. The Opium War Museum was founded in 1957. It was named "Lin Zexu Memorial Hall" at the beginning of its construction. It was renamed "Humen people's anti British Memorial Hall" in 1972 and renamed "Humen Lin Zexu Memorial Hall" in 1985. In order to facilitate the management of the Opium War sites, another Museum name, the Opium War Museum, was added. In July 1987 and January 1988, Shajiao Fort management office and Weiyuan Fort management office were established respectively to manage the fort sites in Shajiao and Weiyuan island. In December 1999, the Naval War Museum was officially opened to the public.

The courtyard area of the Opium War Museum is wide, the trees are covered and the grass is green. On the central axis, there are the images of Humen people's anti British movement, the statue of Lin Zexu and the pavilion. The facade design of the antique fort is magnificent and solemn. The southern side of the hospital was the smoke pond excavated by Lin Zexu when he destructed opium. The exhibition hall is divided into four floors with a construction area of 2500 square meters. The antithetical couplet is the history of Lin Zexu's Opium War and destructed Opium War. The causes and the process of the Opium War are introduced in detail. The wooden posts and wooden boards of the smoke pools are displayed. Couplets and banners of Lin Zexu's handbooks are used. The weapons used in the anti British war were captured, and valuable physical materials such as foreign guns and foreign guns were captured in the British army. On the second floor, the display of "golden lock and copper pass" adopts the background painting beyond the visual field and the original large model to restore the magnificent scene of Humen fortress. In the museum, scene restoration, video screening and other means are widely used, and the whole display is vivid and interesting.

Located in the South Community of Humen Town, the Opium War Museum is a "Naval War Museum" inscribed by Comrade Jiang Zemin. It consists of exhibition building, oath square, sea view dike and other commemorative groups. The basic display, the exhibition of the Opium War and the sea war, was awarded the "best form design award of the top ten national fine exhibitions in 2001". "Half scene painting of Humen naval battle" adopts the modern display technique of combining art with sound and light, which has strong artistic expression and appeal. The exhibition of national anti drug education is an important classroom for youth anti drug education, and the Naval War Museum is listed as one of the national anti drug education bases.

Over the years, under the correct leadership and strong support of the competent authorities at a higher level, the Opium War Museum has adhered to the policy of "protection first, rescue first, rational utilization and strengthened management" in cultural relics protection, made full use of cultural relics resources to carry out patriotic education, and received more than 1 million visitors at home and abroad every year. More than 70 party and state leaders, including General Secretary Hu Jintao, visited the museum one after another.

Lin Zexu memorial hall is located in the town hall community of Humen. The former site of the smoke control pond is the historical remains of Lin Zexu destructed opium in 1839. The gate tower and exhibition building with the charm of the fort, the anti British group sculpture, the bronze statue of Lin Zexu, the Opium monument in Humen, and the anti British cannon all create a strong historical atmosphere.

The "Naval Battle Museum" and "half scene of Humen naval battle" inscribed by Comrade Jiang Zemin, adopt the modern display technique of combining art with sound and light, which has strong artistic expression and appeal. The exhibition of national anti drug education is an important classroom for youth anti drug education, and the Naval War Museum is listed as one of the national anti drug education bases.

The former Fort site managed by Shajiao Fort management office is located in Shajiao community, Humen Town. The well preserved and open cultural relics include Shajiao gate tower, coastal platform, Lingao platform, fishing platform, Jiebing Yifen, Lin gongzexu monument, Mahonia cannon, Krupp cannon, etc. Shajiao fort is an important fortress guarding the Pearl River Estuary. It is close to the mountains and the sea, with beautiful scenery.

The former Fort sites managed by Weiyuan Fort management office are located in the South Community of Weiyuan island in Humen, including Weiyuan, Zhenyuan, Jingyuan, nanshanding, shetouwan, Eyi and other Fort sites. These Fort sites constitute a three-dimensional coastal defense system, known as the "Great Wall of the South Sea".

History of war

The struggle against smoking centered on the issue of banning smoking, and there was a heated debate within the ruling class of the Qing Dynasty. Before the outbreak of the Opium War, Lin Zexu, governor of Huguang, was the representative of the non-smoking faction. He advocated that "smoking should be strictly controlled" and "the law should be strict", and resolutely banned smoking. After the outbreak of the Opium War, he advocated resolute resistance, also known as the resistance faction. The other group, represented by chief military aircraft minister mu zhanga and Zhili governor Qi Shan, initially opposed severe punishment and advocated the abolition of the ban on smoking. Later, they opposed resistance and advocated surrender, also known as capitulationists. Although the foothold of the resistance faction was to safeguard the interests of the feudal dynasty, when the national contradiction rose to the main contradiction, it was far sighted and consistent with the wishes and interests of the people to advocate the elimination of tobacco and drugs and fight against aggression. In October 1838, Lin Zexu wrote to Emperor Daoguang, saying that opium did great harm and must be strictly prohibited. In the memorial, he cried out that if we go on carelessly, we are afraid that in a few decades, "there will be few soldiers in the Central Plains who can resist the enemy, and there will be no money to pay.". Emperor Daoguang knew that soldiers and salaries were the lifeblood of his rule, and it was impossible to threaten his life, so he decided to ban smoking. In December 1838, Lin Zexu was appointed as the imperial envoy to Guangzhou to ban opium. Lin Zexu (1785-1850), whose name is Shaomu, was a Marquis of Fujian Province. In 1811, the Jinshi entered the officialdom and successively served as local officials in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Hubei and other provinces. He also supervised the construction of dikes in Henan Province. He had a better understanding of the social situation and the suffering of the people. He was a landlord class intellectual determined to reform. On January 8, 1839, he was ordered to leave Beijing for Guangzhou. Before he left, he said to his friends, "we have long ignored the misfortunes and blessings of life and death." he was determined to eliminate the scourge of opium. As soon as Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou on March 10, he immediately launched a campaign to ban smoking. Deng Tingzhen, the former governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, who was not very active in banning smoking, also became an active figure in the anti smoking faction under the promotion of the situation. He told Lin Zexu that he must "work together to eliminate the source of China's great calamity.". Lin Zexu kept meeting with officials in Guangzhou to exchange opinions on banning smoking. He summoned hundreds of college students and asked them to list the drug trafficking places and the names of drug dealers. He also disguised himself as a common people and went to the boatmen, fishermen and the general public to investigate in person.

After fully mastering the situation, Lin Zexu took decisive measures: first, he ordered all Chinese and foreign cigarette dealers to hand in opium; second, he asked all foreign businessmen to write a guarantee that they would no longer smuggle opium. "If they bring opium, once they find it out, the goods will be empty, and the people will be punished.". On March 18, Lin Zexu informed the foreign drug dealers to give a detailed report of the actual number of cigarettes stored, which was limited to three days. On March 22, when the three-day deadline had expired, the drug dealers only handed over a small change (1037 cases). In the course of resisting opium trafficking, there was a British drug dealer, Diandi, who was an old hand in drug trafficking in China for many years. He was in charge of a large number of opium smuggling. He has the most opium on hand. He not only refuses to hand it in himself, but also prevents others from doing it all. After Lin Zexu grasped the situation, he immediately ordered the arrest of Diandi. At this time, the British commercial supervision law secretly rushed to Guangzhou from Macao, in an attempt to protect the British Opium ships from fleeing, and ordered the British Opium ships berthed outside the Pearl River Estuary to prepare for war. However, when Yilu fled from the commercial building with a murder weapon, the commercial building was surrounded by the angry Chinese people. The Opium dealers, such as Dandi, were finally arrested.

In order to crack down on the sabotage of Yilv, Lin Zexu immediately ordered to send troops to block the commercial building, stop Sino British trade, cut off the communication between the commercial building and the Opium ship, and withdraw the Chinese employees in the commercial building. The law of righteousness had no choice but to order all the opium to be handed over. Lin Zexu, together with Deng Tingzhen, personally checked and accepted it. From April 12 to May 21, more than 20000 boxes of opium, about 2.3 million jin, worth 8 million taels of silver, were collected.

In order not to let opium poison the people, Lin Zexu decided to destroy all the collected opium. On June 3, 1839, the sky was clear and cloudless. On the vast Humen beach, there was a sea of people. At two o'clock pm, several rounds of guns went off, and Lin Zexu announced destructed opium. The soldiers filled the dug pool with sea water, poured opium and sprinkled lime. Brake time, pool water rolling, smoke skyrocketing, all jubilation. The Opium in the pool soon turned into dregs. At this time, when the tide was ebbing, Lin Zexu ordered the gate to be opened, and the waste in the pool was swept into the sea with the rolling tide. In this way, it took 23 days from June 3, 1839

Chinese PinYin : Ya Pian Zhan Zheng Bo Wu Guan