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As I mentioned last night/this morning, I've just arrived in Hong Kong for a weeklong visit. Picked a hell of a time for it, as it turns out.
I'm not an expert in Hong Kong history or in the current movement by any means, but what's going on right now is extraordinary.
I've tweeted about the protests some in recent months, but I've been reading and retweeting a lot more, since I've been trying to get my bearings. I'm going to do a lot of the same in the next week.
Yesterday when I left Beijing, the Hong Kong subway system, the MTR, had been completely shut down—completely—for the first time in its history, due to the protests.
(For context, imagine the NYC Subways being entirely shut down in response to mass protest action. Hong Kong has nearly the same population as New York City, and the MTR carries about as many people as the subways on an average day.)
By the time I landed in HK, two MTR stations (out of 150+) had been opened back up again—the one at the airport, and the main transfer point from the airport to the rest of the system.
You could only ride if you had a ticket for an outgoing or incoming flight.
It was an extraordinary and unpleasant thing, as a visitor to the city, to see that the city's public transportation, closed off to residents in retaliation for protest, had been opened up for a very small group that included myself.
As a friend noted to me, Hong Kong's government is trying to show that it's still open for business, but with the intensity and scope of protest accelerating almost daily, that's getting more and more difficult to do—and more and more politically fraught.
When I arrived in the neighborhood where I’m staying while I’m in Hong Kong, there was no direct sign of the protests beyond huge swaths of businesses closed early, or for the day. But protest art and graffiti were everywhere.
Lots of slogans spray painted directly onto the streets. 
Lots more spray paint on walls.
And stickers everywhere.
So many stickers.
When I went out last night, this tram stop had been freshly painted to cover up graffiti. When I went out this morning it looked like this.
The escalation of protest in the last few days has been largely in response to two things—an increase in police violence, alluded to in several of the photos above, and a ban on wearing masks during protest actions.
The masks at Hong Kong protests serve two functions—to hide protesters' identities in the face of ubiquitous camera surveillance, and to protect against tear gas, pepper spray, and similar police tactics.
(On the subject of mass video surveillance, I was told by an official as I was walking through the Hong Kong airport to take off my baseball cap. That's an experience I've never had in a public space before.)
The masks have become a symbol of the Hong Kong protests, and a symbol of solidarity between the various factions of the movement. Two of the most beautiful pieces of protest art I've seen since I arrived reflect that.
More later. Bye for now.
