Above, inmates stand outside a northern Shanghai opium detoxification clinic. Opium was easily accessible and widely consumed in 1930s Shanghai, though usage was on the decline by the end of the decade, when cigarettes became more popular. According to legend, a gang based in the Mansion Hotel in the French Concession trafficked 40 percent of the world's opium. 

Virtual Cities Project/Institut d'Asie Orientale 

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