"China was an unknown, forbidden land. For four centuries, her shores had not been touched by the West. But in the early days of the great sailing ships. Western merchants, drawn by the wonders of tea and silk and jade teased at her coastline with the twin seductions of bribery and opium. In the south of China's vastness on the edge of the inland city of Canton they boldly established a trading center and defied the emperor to act."