[contingencies]

Mainland-resident here. Been in and out of HK since 1998. Usually only a few days. However, a FOAF is a just out of jail old-school dissident in Hong Kong.

I can see why people are protesting: partly its the want to stay independent, partly it's fear of the steadily increasingly mainland presence - not just in government, but people. Regular HK'ers are studying Mandarin (very different from their more historically significant and representative dialect, Cantonese) and aiming to do mainland business.

My main observation would be: heard about it from foreigners, got bugger-all details from purely foreign media, saw no mention in mainland media (which, to be fair, I rarely see). So just to confirm: there is zero coverage in the mainland, and not much elsewhere as far as I've seen.

Anyway: good luck Hong Kong, you have a really unique situation in which you can exercise your rights. Make it worthwhile.