Life and Travel in China

Communist propaganda works! In the MSN messenger, most of my Chinese friends' descriptions included [HEART] CHINA, a symbol like I LOVE CHINA. I thought it was some new MSN feature that shows people's locations. However, it turned out to be some sort of propaganda campaign to support China and be against the USA and France. Everyone entered this symbol on their own and MSN has nothing to do with it.

There's going to be a lot going on tomorrow! In Shenzhen they organize a large march, a demonstration against the independence of Tibet, anti-American and anti-French. A crowd of people will pass through the entire city. In addition, demonstrations in front of Carrefour hypermarkets. Tomorrow the Olympic torch will be in Hong Kong, there (in a democratic country) there will definitely be protests in support of Tibet, and in China it's the other way around. Policy!

As it turned out, there were no protests. Yes, larger groups of policemen appeared in the center, a dozen or so policemen kept order in front of Carrefour hypermarkets. It seems that the authorities have not allowed any demonstrations, public order is more important. Apparently, Chinese solidarity did not work either. It ended with group emails boycotting French products and plans to protest on discussion forums. The police efficiently prevented everything. And I don't have any photos, I expected a big manifestation and I was disappointed.

The Olympic torch made a false start in Shenzhen. The ceremony was supposed to start at 7 a.m. but was moved to 12 p.m. Apparently the torch was delayed due to the expedition to Mount Everest. I went at 7 a.m. to take photos. At the second station, several thousand people got on! After 10 minutes we managed to leave the station. And there are crowds! Several hundred thousand people, on the streets, in a large square. I joined the main procession and took photos of the crazy crowd with hundreds of Chinese flags. I thought we were following a convoy with a torch, but it turned out later that there were no torches at all and there would be none for the next 3 hours. Despite this, the crowd remained in the main square. A river of people blocked all streets in the area, subway exits, sidewalks and the square in front of the city hall. I'll try to catch the torch again later, but it won't be easy. I will try to add some photos today.

Yesterday I went out to the expressway to admire the torch. I thought I was smart and went onto the bridge, a perpendicular road over the street where the relay was supposed to run. After 5 minutes, the police appeared and chased away several Chinese. Then to me... I say that I just want to take a photo (perfect place, the street is clearly visible). Light resistance, they strong persuasion. He grabbed my hand and pulled me, telling me to go downstairs. I took a different road that they blocked for cars. There, I was intercepted by two more China security officers and policemen. I was standing in front of a crowd of people, in front of barriers. At first the police gave up. Later the Chinese started complaining why I could stand there and they had to be here. And some more important cop showed up and pushed me into the crowd. I got pissed! I changed my place and stood at attention for almost 1.5 hours with my camera ready. I finally realized that the torch would not be running on the road near us. We were separated from the relay by a two-lane road, several dozen uniformed officers, a concrete wall, a green belt with bushes and only there, about 40 meters from the crowd, was a torch. A guy got off the bus, another guy ran up, lit a torch and ran. It lasted 30 seconds. Many people were disappointed. And I laughed at my own stupidity. In the crowd, I didn't even have time or way to change the lens to a larger zoom. I was standing in a crowd of onlookers, the heat was about 30 degrees, the sun was shining, everyone was sweating, there were screams, noises, fights. In other places, the army literally pulled people away from torches, pushed onlookers and grabbed photographers. Helicopters, army trucks, police everywhere. Almost martial law, not an Olympic torch relay. The uniformed officers did not caress the crowd. It's sad to see it, it's either the Olympics or a brawl. On the one hand, a crazy crowd, without any rules, without respect for the entire event, on the other, aggressive uniformed officers with specific orders. This cannot be reconciled.