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| With only 2 protestors out in the early morning
sunshine, Hu Jintao must have thought he was going to get a quiet
start to his first full day in London as he arrived at Savoy
Pier for a boat trip to Greenwich. But Simon and Paula made sure
it wasn't too quiet, and as he arrived he could not have failed
to see the banners Simon had set up opposite the Pier, and neither
could he have missed the Tibetan flag waving gleefully from the
back of Paula's bicycle as she rode within a few feet of his
car, before being gently nudged away from the centre of the road
by a police officer. As he boarded the boat we assailed him with
some sturdy cries through the megaphone, which we quickly switched
back and forth between us, so that our 2 person vigil swelled
in sound to at least ten. Monday evening opposite the Banqueting Hall began with us being shifted by the police to the other side of very noisy Whitehall. Surely this wasn't going to be a repeat of Jiang Zemin's visit? We were technically still visible and audible though, so it wasn't a complete cover up. How though, did they manage to time Hu Jintao's arrival just as 2 double-decker buses pulled up at the red light in front of us, blocking us from view? It was an unusually long time before the lights turned to green (did they hold the lights?), by which time Hu Jintao and his entourage were safely whisked inside. This time though there was no back door for him to slide out of at the end, and so the protestor-phobic Hu Jintao had to endure the shouts not only of the main crowd way across Whitehall, but also a small group who had managed to move in much closer, and to our surprise, were not ushered away by the police. On Tuesday morning the cowardly Hu Jintao sneaked in the back entrance of the British Museum, thus missing the rowdy lone Tibet Vigil protestor standing in wait for him! Not to be outwitted again, I pedalled up to the back entrance, where I was joined by 2 students from SOAS. This time he had no escape and the wonderful canyon effect of the tall buildings sandwiching the quiet street meant that my cries through the loud hailer of "China the terrorist, out of Tibet" boomed at him with satisfying force. Hu Jintao was deservedly embarrassed. ---Paula |
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| EMBASSY We arrived at the Embassy at 6.00pm for the banquet given by Hu Jintao to find Falun Gong already there, but there was still plenty of room for us. The Chinese decided to introduce a new secret weapon- really bad drumming. As one of the police commented "it was obviously the most unmusical cooks, and chefs they could find." It was ironic to see the Chinese make such a nuisance with their drums on the public pavement when they object at other times to a few flowers from us.Sorry China the pavement does not belong to you any more than Tibet. We had to wait till about 10.00pm before he sneaked out, but there were still enough of us to make our presence felt.---Patricia |
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| DOWNING STREET We were due to arrive at midday at Downing Street but luckily Simon arrived at 10.00am thirty seconds before Falun Gong ensuring that we got space and a good spot opposite Downing Street. This proved to be our biggest and liveliest demonstration. The police were quite relaxed although cold and interested in our cause. Paula and Jane arrived as usual by bike with Tibetan flags streaming behind them. A Tibetan was shouting "Tony stop harbouring the terrorist" and that we knew Hu Jintao was sneaking out the back passage to much laughter from everyone. In all the commotion three vigil members decided to go for a walk towards the Foreign Office, and two could be seen in front of the Downing St gates getting ready to greet Hu, but unfortunately as predicted he sneaked out the back way just letting us see his motorcycle escort and car drawing away like the mouse he is. ---Patricia |
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| LANCASTER HOUSE When I first arrived the police had blocked off the whole of Cleveland Street and I was informed that Hu had already gone in & it was over. I happily ignored this intelligence and strode past the bussed in Chinese with my Tibetan flag flying , which for some reason annoyed quite a few of them. I found a small group of 14 people ,mainly Tibetans, and the usual Falun Gong. I was informed that we could not make a noise as we were in a residential zone, so we immediately started shouting ,which meant a lively discussion with the police. In the end we agreed to keep quiet, along with the Chinese, until Hu Jintao's car arrived. From our vantage point we saw the distant lights of the police motorcycle escort and the car which the Chinese students could not. It meant that when he finally left , to the surprise of the police and the Chinese, we were the only group that was able to shout and made our point. So in the end Tibet got the last word and another loss of face to China.--Patricia |
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| POLICE PHOTOGRAPHER POSTSCRIPT The snappers have arrived. If you see one the best thing to do is smile and wave and shout things like "yoohoo" in a what-we-did-on-our-holidays-kind-of-way.--Simon |
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