Photo documentary of the glorious torch relay

Today the olympic torch relay passed through my little Special Administration Region.

First it went past Tsim Tsa Tsui, where apparently there were some tensions between Tibet protesters and the China supporters. This is the last leg of the torch relay where people can protest. Interestingly, the Hong Kong government didn't let some protesters enter Hong Kong during the time of the torch relay.

Actually, this morning i was sitting downstairs waiting for my friend Justin, wondering why all the hall residents were coming back dressed in red 'i love China' t-shirts and with huge China flags. I thought it was just some normal patriotism from the mainland students, before i realised it was in fact torch relay day.


But meanwhile, as the torch was running around Hong Kong in the morning, Justin and i were on Lion Rock.

You can't quite see in the photo, but his shirt is orange. We thought this might be problematic because on the way to the rock we saw another friend, who had been to the TST leg, and said torch relay spectators were colour coded - 'red is for pro china, orange is for freedom protesters, and blue is for samsung promotions people.' (it's Hong Kong, gotta put a product in there to balance all the idealism etc.) So we were a little worried Justin would get kicked in the kidneys by the cops for wearing orange accidentally.

So after hiking we went to Wan Chai to see the final leg of the relay, where it ends up at the convention centre with the giant bohinea (the flower on the hong kong flag) that was a gift to Hong Kong after the reunification with the mainland.

It's hard to tell the difference between Chinese flags and Coca Cola flags. 'Communism! Capitalism! ah...whatever.....' People are getting excited because the torch is almost here.......!

AND HERE IT IS!

The torch bearer is the one you can't see because he is behind the lamp post.... sorry.

How many people can we fit in the stair case?

I'd always heard the Hong Kong had alot of police presence, but this is just ridiculous. Look closely in the background and you'll see tonnes of them, just waiting for someone to put on a 'Free Tibet' t-shirt.