A group of Chinese tourists inspect items for sale in a shop in Mong La. The men buy bottles of tiger wine (made by infusing tiger bones and Chinese herbs in rice wine for up to 8 years) while the women are more interested in the jade jewellery and powder made from bear bile which is extracted in bear battery farms outside the town.

The town of Mong La on the Burma - China border in western Burma (Myanmar) is technically in Burma but relies on most infrastructure - electricity, telecommunications - on neighbouring China. The main currency used here is the Chinese yuan. The town is in the middle of the so-called "Golden Triangle" and specialises in gambling and the sale of poached and endangered species. Tiger skins, rhino horns, pangolins and other creatures are freely traded here and many are available to eat. Prostitution is rife and just outside the town a bear farm keeps between 500 and 600 bears which are kept in captivity for their bile which is harvested for medicinal use.