Qingping Chinese medicinal herbs market

This guide to the Qingping Chinese medicinal herbs market in Guangzhou traces a straight line from the cages of civet cats, owls and snakes once stacked here to the mysterious pneumonia that spread across Guangdong in two thousand three. It follows scientists back to this market as they hunted for the animal source of the outbreak, and the emergency order that followed in early two thousand four. From there it turns to what the market became once the live-animal trade ended, moving into one of China's oldest lines of harvested cures, with dried seahorses and jarred starfish still stacked on the tables around you.