China: File: 'The opium ships at Lintin, China,1824'. William John Huggins (1781-1845).

China: File: 'The opium ships at Lintin, China,1824'. William John Huggins (1781-1845).

Nei Lingding Island (Chinese: ????, Nei Lingding Dao, 'Inner Lingding Island') is an island in the Pearl River estuary in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Although it is located closer to the eastern (Hong Kong and Shenzhen) shore of the estuary, it is administratively part of the prefecture-level city of Zhuhai, whose main administrative center is located on the west shore of the river. In the early 19th century Nei Lingding (Lintin) Island was called the 'outer anchorage' for European ships traveling to Canton (Guangzhou). They would have to stop at the island, have their cargo inspected and measured by the Chinese customs officials stationed at the island, and pay customs duties. When in 1821 the Chinese government prohibited importation of opium into the country's ports, Lintin became a base of drug smugglers; old boats hulks, anchored near the island, served as warehouses and depots where imported opium would be reloaded to smaller boats to be smuggled into Guangzhou and other ports. From the 1830s until the cession of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Lintin Island was the main base for British merchants in the Pearl River Delta area.

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