Riots in Xiahe and Chengdu: A Report from the Field, Part II
Part II
The riots spread from Lhasa to the beautiful city of Chengdu in Sichuan province. I was in Chengdu from March 25 until March 27, which was less than 10 days after the riots happened.
This is a city that is located in a more tropical environment. The weather called for shorts and T-shirts both day and night, but the locals still wore pants and light jackets. The city is spread over a large area and, like every other city in China, there is a square with a statue of Mao doing his famous wave to everyone who walks by. The city was alive, with businesses everywhere, shops, thousands of bikes, restaurants, a bar street, a few excellent clubs, beautiful parks, and monasteries. My friend who accompanied me on the journey said, “I’ve been all over China and this is the first city [where] I can see how beautiful and magnificent the culture and people of China are.” He was right about that. On a Tuesday afternoon, Renmin park was packed with locals playing mahjong, singing karaoke, slow dancing, sipping tea, playing cards, or just enjoying a beautiful stroll through the park.
Walking through the city I began notice something that was different from other big cities in China: there were very few foreigners. I counted less than 10 within the first 24 hours of my stay. This was most likely because of the protests and foreign governments instructing their citizens to stay away from the city. The American government and our trip advisor recommended we did the same, but that didn’t stop us.
As we walked through Tianfu Square, I saw something I had never seen before in China, police and military with guns and full body armor. These weren’t just any guns though; some police had pistols holstered and others had semi-automatic weapons with them as they patrolled the area. The only other time you see police with guns in China is when money is being taken in or out of a bank. I was advised by my friend not to take pictures, but I tried my best to get a few snapshots in.
The next day we ventured, via public double-decker bus, towards the Tibetan area and a temple. Before we did this, we had to walk past Tianfu Square again. On our way there, my friend and I spotted two monks walking ahead of us. We immediately slowed down to keep our distance from them so as to establish no connection with them. (Who would’ve thought that we would want to keep our distance from monks?) We passed the monks after they precariously walked into a Nike store. While waiting for my friend at the ATM, I noticed the monks approach a street vendor about 10 meters from us. I was able to get a look at the two of them. One was in his early twenties and in good health, while the other was not. He appeared to be in his late 20’s or early 30’s and his face appeared to have lots of new, really dark, red skin on it. It wasn’t black and blue from a blow, but appeared to be more of something a burn or scrape would cause. Usually I see all types of weird injuries on all kinds of people in China, but this was of great interest to me because of the recent protest news. The next thing the monks did was walk into the square, which surprised me. There wasn’t as much of a police presence as the day before, but there were still police umbrellas and, most likely, numerous undercover officers. We watched from a distance and saw the monks pass through the square without incident.
After an overcrowded bus ride where they give the announcement of stops in both Chinese and English, despite no one else most likely understanding the English, we arrived at the temple. This temple also contributed to the greatness of the city; it was the most beautiful and well taken care of temple I have visited in China. It was dedicated to the story of the Three Brothers. The feng shui was in full swing here.
After the temple we headed towards Tibetan street. I thought the street was another block down, but then my friend assured me it was the street filled with police cars, which it was. Even with my eyes and ears closed I could’ve known this was the Tibetan area. The smell of Yak was everywhere, just like in Xiahe.
While walking down the street, I couldn’t help secretly taking a few photos of the present police force. Every fifty meters, on both sides of the street, were marked and unmarked police cars with their lights on, as well as a few driving down the street every few minutes. It was a little intimidating, but we never felt that our safety was threatened. As we approached the intersection in the middle of the Tibetan area, there were two police cars on each corner and I could get the feeling that this must’ve been where it all went down. We continued to walk past and saw a storefront that was converted into temporary police headquarters. The majority of the officers that we saw in the area all seemed to be very relaxed and taking a break in their car.
We did see a few monks on the street, though. They were older monks, monks that would’ve been too old to protest. Then while walking I received a very shocking and threatening look from a very unexpected person. A middle-aged Tibetan monk, walking the opposite direction on the sidewalk, gave my friend and I the meanest, creepiest, and scariest staredown I have ever received. Usually I receive stares in China for being a foreigner and try to return them, but not this time. This stare sent chills down my spine. Even as we walked past him, I saw out of my peripheral vision that he had turned around and continued to stare at us with a deep piercing gaze. It was unnerving and unexpected to have the impression of my safety being threatened by a monk and not the police.
Despite my experiences in the Tibetan area and the presence of the police force, Chengdu is still one of my favorite places in China. After the encounter on Tibetan street I was still able to go out and enjoy the rest of the day and make friends with a club manager who invited us to drink free tequila for the rest of the night.
