Word: quanzhou
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Dates: during 1991-1991
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...perhaps she would be interested in a better deal: two live young pandas, chained and ready to go, for just $112,000. Of course, he had leopard and tiger pelts as well, if she were interested. Eight smugglers gathered around them in the dimly lighted, smoke-filled room in Quanzhou, an ancient seaport on the narrow waterway between mainland China and Taiwan; each one was seeking a $19,000 cut just for witnessing a deal...
That, however, was only a small taste of what was available through clandestine channels. At a village near Quanzhou, the WWF agent was treated to the sickening sight of 28 leopard skins, including six identified as the critically endangered Amur, believed to number only 40 in the world. The price: $380 apiece. Two taxidermy shops in Fuzhou offered more extravagant horror shows. "One had egrets, leopard cats, pangolins, slow lorises and eagles." The other shop contained "at least 100 animal specimens and must have had 500 birds -- kingfishers, hummingbirds, everything." The owner, she speculates, "may have connections in the local...