The day I joined the HK protests

by Susana Silva (Portugal)

A leap into the unknown Hong Kong

When there is no pandemic threat, travelling to China is one of the most diverse experiences you can find. From the very cytidine Beijing, with all of its well-preserved monuments, to the more rural areas, every place shows its own vibe. My plan, as a solo traveller, was doing the historic cities in the mainland China and ending in Macau to have a glimpse of this old Portuguese colony before the Chinese culture invade it and erase all the European traits. One of the easiest ways to reach this former colony is through another former colony, which was experiencing a not so calm period at that time. Usually, the top things for a tourist to do in Hong Kong are related to sightseeing the Walk of Stars or climbing to Victoria Peak. Any guidebook will recommend going directly to a protest. But the time was November 2019 - the exponent of the Hongkongers’ fight for freedom. On social media, following hashtags related to the conflicts, you could find the timetables to the rallies. These profiles have two goals: inform in real-time what is happening to those who want to join, and for those who want to avoid the critic areas. On that Saturday, the only full day I had reserved to Hong Kong, and as a benefit of travelling solo, everything I had put on my to-do list was done by noon. What led to a question all travels love to answer – “where should I go now?”. As I stepped into the bus that would bring me from the peak to the financial downtown, the struggle in my mind was clear “I love History, and History is happening around the corner”... Once in my destination stop, five police trucks passed by at low speed. I followed them to the Queens’ Road – one of the main business areas of Hong Kong. The number of people walking outside decreased and some small business like convenience stores started closing the doors. It was 3 pm. The policemen were aligned at the middle of the street, establishing a perimeter and closing the area for further advance. There was no more traffic allowed, and Queens’ Road was deserted. For now. Going straight, I started to hear some distant voices, people passed by me dressed majority in black. They were lead by the youngers, but all the generations came to the street following the same direction I was going on. There were groups of friends and families, some of them wearing black masks but others just keeping their usual outfit. At some point, I stopped walking, people were converging to the place I was. A large group was marching in my direction. Songs of protests were now louder and louder, and although I had no idea what they were saying, some posters in English asked for “freedom”. A helicopter stopped right above us, but the crowd continued to walk into the direction where the police were lined up. At some point, people start running. We were approaching the end of the perimeter, and tear gas was launched. I ran into a bank with some other foreigners and also locals. The air outside was impossible to breathe and my eyes were burning. From the glass walls of the bank, we saw the police advance. One of the guys offered me a black mask, I said thank you but refused it - I didn't want to look like a frontliner. I decided to end the experience after the tear gas and catch the city ferry to the other side of the island where I was staying. It’s a cheap ticket and the view from the river is amazing, even if there were two helicopters now overflying the island. At 10 p.m., the voices of protests were still powerful, and I found out that to see the protests I could have stayed in my hotel - the area was also a protest zone. In the morning, I got up earlier to go finally to Macau, the city was being clean, it would be just an ordinary and relax Sunday in Hong Kong. There were no protests scheduled for that day.