More than ten thousand people showed up to support the San Francisco Olympic torch relay yesterday. They never got to see the torch as it took a different route in the last minute for security reasons. But here are some photos:
Chinese students from Stanford, Berkeley and many other colleges in the Bay Area were gathering in front of AT&T; park, where the opening ceremony was supposed to happen.
Some were singing the patriotic Chinese national song: “Arise, for the people who do not want to be slaves, let our blood and flesh be a new Great Wall. The Chinese Nation has arrived to a critical point, we are roaring out our cry as a last resort. Arise, arise, we are united as one heart, we are facing enemy’s fire, forward, forward, forward!”
There were many emotionally-charged and intense debates….. Fortunately, the demonstrations and debates were mostly peaceful and there was no violence.
Here is a photo you will probably never see in the media. The banner says: “Say NO to U.S. CIA campaign against China.”
A Tibetan protester put a “Free Tibet” banner on Ferry Building at Justin Herman Plaza – the original ending point of the torch run. But the banner was torn down later by the supporters, who substantially outnumbered protesters.
Some people were having peaceful discussions and learning to see from each other’s point of view.
Mostly, people who had taken a day off from their work and waited the whole day to welcome the Olympic torch and celebrate this joyful event were disappointed as the torch never arrived.