On a small jetty on the edge of thePear River, you can see the intimidating Weiyuan Battery, all part of the collective forts that go to make up the Weiyuan Fort, Weiyuan Island at the east of Humen port. Humen, a town within the city of Dongguan, Guangdong, China. The fort is part of the second tier defence of Humen Fort and was built in 1815. It was lost in the great naval battle of Humen (1841) and damaged by the British forces. By 1843 it was repaired but was again damaged by British forces in 1856. The Fortress Battery is a crescent shape 360 meters long, 6.2 meters high, and 7.6 meters wide. The base of the battery is built very solidly onto granite. There are four exposed emplacements and 40 hidden emplacements. Chinese film director Xie Jin’s film Opium Wars was filmed here. Here you can aslo see the huge sweep of the Humen Bridge. The bridge, completed in 1997, was the first large suspension bridge designed and constructed by China independently. It is 4.58 kilometers (2.8 miles) long with the deck of the bridge carrying six, two-way traffic lanes. The main span stretches 888 meters (2913 feet). Incidently, on the island in the middle of the river you can see the remains of one of the other forts, part of the same grouping for defence of the Pearl River. The First Opium Wars (1839 to 1842) which were started as a result of Lin Zexu siezing and destroying many tons of Opium on the nearby beach at Humen.The Second Opium War was 1856 to 1860.