The first photographer to explore China was a Venetian named Felice A. Beato who came to the country during the Second Opium War in 1860. Making pictures at this time was something of a trial. Photographers were still using wet plates that had to be developed on the spot and quickly printed in make-shift darkrooms in the field. For the most part, Beato made landscapes of this exotic part of the world to take back to Europe and sell to Westerners. Perhaps the most well known photographer, John Thompson from Edinburgh, began his photographic record of Asia in Cambodia and Malaysia in 1865, and eventually opened a studio in Singapore. By 1868, he headed north to Hong Kong and then traveled to Canton and ultimately as far as Beijing, documenting along the way not only the scenery of the country, but the everyday life of its people. He published in four volumes, 200 of his photographs, calling the project, Illustrations of China and Its People. It is still recognized as one of the most thorough photographic documentaries on Asia.