Residents, visitors scared and saddened by rampaging radicals

HONG KONG - The wanton destruction of property across Hong Kong's Kowloon district by violent radicals has "scared" and "saddened" tourists and residents in the city.

They shared their feelings with China Daily on Monday morning in the heart of central Kowloon, a densely-populated area of Hong Kong with many must-visit shops and attractions.

Walking down Nathan road, one of the main thoroughfares in central Kowloon, China Daily reporters on Monday morning saw many cleaners sweeping away trash and shattered glass and washing off graffiti. Tourists on the street were few.

With almost all traffic lights along the six-lane Nathan Road out of service, traffic had become chaotic, with pedestrians and vehicles vying for space to move.

Passengers trying to find bus information had to wade through leaflets put up on bus stops by the radicals.

With extensive damage done to the four major interchanges of metro lines — Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei, Jordon and Tsim Sha Tsui — many passengers, both morning commuters and tourists, had to try their luck trying to find station entrances that were open on Monday. Passengers had to queue up to exit Tsim Sha Tsui station, as only four entrances remained functional.

Sophie Norr, one of the affected tourists from Australia, had to walk from Tsim Sha Tsui to Jordan after failing to find one functioning entrance for Tsim Sha Tsui station.

Scared to see rampaging protesters, Norr, 20, said she had scrapped her plan to travel on Sunday. She described the acts of trashing metro entrances and facilities as "insane" and felt sorry for anyone who has to repair the damage.

On Sunday, radicals threw the city into its 20th straight weekend of turmoil, with attacks on police stations, metro stations, and unprecedented destruction on facilities of enterprises with known links to the Chinese mainland.

Unable to provide service on Monday was a flagship store of Xiaomi, a mainland company, that was almost burnt down with plumes of smoke engulfing the building that houses it.

A branch of a popular medical brand was broken into and looted. Branches of many banks, reeling from previous mob attacks, were still under repair, and could offer only limited services on Monday morning.

Alex Mo, a 30-year-old local resident who works in finance, took the initiative to take down posters put up by demonstrators along his way to the office. Mo said he is furious and saddened to see the extensive damages done by violent radicals. He doubted if trashing shops had anything to do with the quest for democracy and freedom. "They are thugs," said Mo.

His opinions were echoed by a clerk in her fifties who disapproved of damaging shops out of anti-China sentiments. "If you don't like made-in-China things, you can throw what you have at home away as almost everything is made in China now. But you have no right to break into other people's shops," she said."After all, we all live in the same place. Hong Kong is our home, beautiful and neat. Seeing what it has become, nobody is happy," she said.