There? Not there?

I was in Xian when the torch relay for the Olympics hit the city. You've probably seen the relay going on in harmony on TV, with street people lining up waving their flags and calling out in joy. Yes those moments were created with much coordination work done behind the scene. Little did I know that I could never get in as an ordinary street person despite my attempt to arrive at the site hours early planning to get to the front row. No kidding... basically all the streets around the site were being blocked off as far as few miles down.

So there I was stuck with many other ordinary street people having the same naive thought in mind, pondering how on earth would we be missing the entire event when we were actually... there?




On a brighter note, I ended up documenting the event in a far more interesting way. Seeing people in full spirit, then getting frustrated, confronting/ignoring the police force, climbing up walls and eventually, tearing down walls.




P.S. These pictures were shot from my very reliable compact camera :) It'd have been the END of my SLR had I ever showed it off...