At Last – An Online Game for Me – Be an Opium Trader in the China Seas and Play High Tea

The excellent Wellcome Collection on London’s Euston Road is a fantastic resource for anything to do with the history of medicine. Within their archives are plenty of gems – the other year they did a wonderful job restoring John Thomson photos and then displaying them in London and Peking. Right now they have an interesting exhibition on about the history of drugs in Britain (based around Mike Jay’s new book High Society) that touches on two themes China Rhyming has covered before – opium in the West, the dens, the Chinatown Yellow Perils etc and the Opium Wars. Britain-China: impossible to understand the relationship between the two without understanding opium. And it still resonates – just look at the recent spat over Cameron and his Remembrance Day Poppy in Peking!

To accompany the exhibition there’s an online game – High Tea

Now China Rhyming normally has no interest in online games and all that nonsense but here’s the blurb for this game (and of course how could I resist it):

In this strategic plate-spinning game, you play an independent British smuggler selling opium in China’s Pearl Delta. Buy cheap and sell high to make a profit, but make sure you also obtain enough tea to keep Britain happy. You have ten years before the opium wars begin – can you make your fortune? Based on historical events, this game also shines a light on a questionable episode in the history of the British Empire.