Dining, laughing, living amid Hong Kong protests
A couple in wedding dress and tuxedo pose for photos on Hong Kong's famed Victoria Peak. A diner at a streetside restaurant focuses on his food while protesters march by. Two people ride the up escalator as a phalanx of riot-ready police descends on the other side.
Life is not quite normal after three months of steady protests in this Asian financial center — and yet normal life goes on, as it must, for the city's 7.4 million people.
Residents, tourists and laughter fill the restaurants at the Temple Street night market, though declining airport arrivals and discounted hotel rooms show the tourism industry's pain.
Spectators watch as pro-democracy protesters march in central Hong Kong, Aug. 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
"There's a lot going on here at the moment, obviously, but still a lovely place to be," said David Smith, a 49-year-old British man sitting with friends at an outdoor table on a rain-dampened street. "You just have to be more careful when you are here."
The images of this summer's pro-democracy and anti-police and anti-government protests have been riveting. Repeated bursts of tear gas. Homemade gasoline bombs hurled at police. Blood stains on the ground. A sea of umbrellas as marchers take over downtown streets.
Away from, or between, the madness, old-timers play their mahjong tiles. Bright laundry hangs from a drab apartment building in this vertical city. Spray-painted slogans cover a Kate Spade advertisement on a bus shelter. On the other side, people wait for the bus.
Two commuters ride an escalator at a train station past police officers in riot gear deployed to arrest protesters in Hong Kong, Sept. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Pedestrians cross the street in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong, Sept. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Pro-democracy protesters march in central Hong Kong, Aug. 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A man walks past a bus stop spray-painted with an anti-China slogan "Chinazi" in Hong Kong, Sept. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
People purchase subway tickets from a vandalized customer center in Hong Kong, Aug. 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A woman walks past a graffiti at a train station in Hong Kong, Aug. 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Protesters are reflected on a window as they march during a pro-democracy protest in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, Aug. 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam makes an announcement on an extradition bill in television message, seen at a restaurant in Hong Kong, Sept. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A group of British tourists share a laugh around a dinner table at Temple Street Night Market in Hong Kong, Sept. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
People wait for buses at a bus stop vandalized by protesters in Hong Kong, Sept. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Workers remove graffiti left by protesters during a protest the night before in Hong Kong, Sept. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A vendor selling handbags along with a few "I heart HK" tote bags, sits in her booth at Temple Street Night Market in Hong Kong, Sept. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A bride fixes her groom's bow tie during a wedding photoshoot on the top of the Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, Sept. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A taxi driver eats his late dinner in his car near the Temple Street Night Market in Hong Kong, Sept. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
An old apartment building stands next to a gleaming tower in Hong Kong, Sept. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A man sets up his camera in the Victoria Peak area to photograph Hong Kong's skyline, Sept. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Text from AP News story AP PHOTOS: Dining, laughing, living amid Hong Kong protests by Jae C. Hong.
Photos by Jae C. Hong
