Flights canceled, major roads blocked as Hong Kong protests escalate

Police walk in a line as they attempt to disperse protesters in Wong Tai Sin during a general strike in Hong Kong on August 5.

Two protest scenes have seen flashes of violence on both sides of Hong Kong, with no end in sight to today’s demonstrations.

Police and protesters clashed in the suburban district of Wong Tai Sin, in front of the police barracks. Officers raised the black warning flag and fired tear gas at protesters who temporarily dispersed.

On the other side of Victoria Harbor, there were reports of violence between protesters and armed civilians in the residential area of North Point.

Video from the scene showed the civilians beating protesters with long poles, while the demonstrators threw traffic cones and bollards at them.

Tourists take selfies from Victoria Peak in front of a view of residential and commercial buildings in Kowloon (background) and Hong Kong Island on May 3.

If you’d booked to visit Hong Kong in the next few weeks, you might be feeling concerned right now.

But despite the mass protests, tear gas and riot police on the streets, Hong Kong is still a relatively safe place to visit, with much of the city running as normal.

For its part, the Hong Kong Tourism Commission has said the city is still open to travelers. And key major attractions such as the Peak Tram, the Ladies’ Market and the Star Ferry, which takes passengers across the Victoria Harbor to Kowloon, have been unaffected.

But there are signs the protests are having an impact on tourism.

Between June 16 and July 13, during which time there were several huge demonstrations, flight bookings to Hong Kong from Asia fell by 5.4% on the same period last year, according to analysis firm ForwardKeys.

Read more in this article.

Demonstrations in Hong Kong have forced the city’s biggest airline, Cathay Pacific, to cancel more than 150 flights and urge passengers to postpone non-essential travel.

Cathay Pacific urged customers not to fly Monday and Tuesday, and said it would waive fees for rebooking. Shares in Cathay plunged more than 4% during trading Monday.

The airline is the city’s flagship carrier. It flies about 34 million passengers every year and serves nearly 200 cities around the world from its hub at Hong Kong’s international airport.

Hong Kong Airlines, a smaller carrier, said it has canceled 32 flights. United Airlines said its flights were unaffected.

More than 2,300 aviation workers took part in the strike, including 1,200 Cathay cabin crew and pilots, according to the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions.

Service was suspended for more than an hour Monday morning on the Airport Express, which is a line that zips people between the airport and the city center in under 25 minutes.

Hong Kong air space and runway capacity at the airport has been effectively reduced by 50% for all airlines, according to an internal Cathay Pacific memo seen by CNN that was sent to staff that supports pilots and ensures planes operate efficiently and on time.

More than 74 million passengers traveled to and from Hong Kong’s international airport last year. The major Asian hub handles 1,100 passenger and cargo flights daily, with services between Hong Kong and about 200 international destinations.

Protesters occupy Causeway Bay, one of Hong Kong's most crowded districts, on Sunday.

While older Hong Kongers who grew up in the British colony strongly identify with China and saw a point of pride in the city returning to Chinese rule,today, the number of people who express pride in being a Chinese citizen is at a record low, with a significant number of young people identifying as Hong Kongers rather than Chinese, according to the Hong Kong University Public Opinion Program.

For those who identify as Hong Kongers, the idea of being fully absorbed by what they view as a foreign country is terrifying, let alone a country as authoritarian as Xi Jinping’s China.

Many worry about the impending 2047 deadline, when the current “one country, two systems” model that Hong Kong is governed under expires.

Undoubtedly 2047 seemed like a long way off for those overseeing Hong Kong’s handover, and remained impossibly distant for much of the city’s early political development, but for the student protesters flooding the streets this year, it is very much on the horizon – 18-year-olds today will be 46 when the city becomes fully Chinese.

Unlike many millennial Hong Kongers – whose parents moved abroad in the years running up to handover, taking advantage of generous immigration laws within the British Commonwealth to get their children foreign passports – they also have no way out. This is their home and they’re stuck here, like it or not, so they may as well try to fix it.

Read more here

Protesters started a large fire outside a police station in Sha Tin, a residential area of northern Hong Kong where authorities and demonstrators have clashed today.

After making a pile of boxes and wooden pallets, protesters sparked a fire at about 7.30 p.m. local time. Firefighters have arrived at the scene and are attempting to put it out.

This weekend’s protests saw demonstrators start multiple fires. In the shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui on Saturday, protesters started a fire inside a car in a police station.

One of the Hong Kong’s biggest roads has been completely blocked by protesters, setting up yet another confrontation with police.

Nathan Road runs down the spine of Kowloon Peninsula and is one of the city’s most important roads. On Saturday night all six lanes were completely occupied by protesters, leading to violent clashes with police.

Protesters take over Nathan Road again on Monday in Hong Kong.

Protesters have now reoccupied the road in the crowded shopping district of Mong Kok, near Argyle Road.

Police are already facing down protesters in Causeway Bay, Tin Shui Wai and Sha Tin, among others.

Although demonstrations have been going on for weeks, this is the first time they’ve spread to so many districts simultaneously.

Riot police stand guard at Wong Tai Sin on August 5 in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong police have arrested 80 people so far today – the highest number in a single day since protests began in early June.

A total of 420 people have been arrested in connection with the 9 week long protest movement, said police spokesperson Yolanda Yu – 317 men and 73 women, aged 16 to 76.

That number could still rise, as confrontations between police and protesters continue this evening across Hong Kong.

Protests and strikes have spread to almost every corner of Hong Kong today.

In the past two months, large, individual demonstrations have paralyzed a single district or led to clashes between police and protesters.

As night falls in Hong Kong, police and protesters are engaged in multiple clashes, with tear gas being fired at five different locations.

Earlier in the day, mass transport strikes and protests massively delayed both trains and planes coming in and out of the city.

Here’s where today’s strike action and demonstrations have taken place so far:

Yang Guang (C) and Xu Luying (R), spokespersons for mainland China's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office attend a press conference in Beijing on July 29.

The Chinese government office which manages Hong Kon affairsg has announced it will hold its second press briefing on the escalating protests Tuesday.

It will be held at 2.30 p.m. local time, after five days of straight protests in Hong Kong

it comes just one week after they held their first briefing on the demonstrations, where they warned the situation in the city was “grave.”

It is highly unusual for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office to hold one press briefing but two back-to-back meetings shows how serious Beijing is taking the situation.

The demonstrators who had taken over Harcourt Road, in the center of Hong Kong’s government district, have begun to move away.

Police had fired dozens of rounds of tear gas at the protesters in an attempt to clear the road, which runs alongside the city’s Legislative Council.

It now appears that protesters are moving east towards Causeway Bay, a major Hong Kong shopping and commercial district.

WATCH POLICE FIRING TEAR GAS AT PROTESTERS: