From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barrow. This is The Daily.

Today, inside Hong Kong's airport, thousands of protesters are trying to send a message to the

people of mainland China. What the people of mainland China are making of that message.

It's Wednesday, August 14th.

How did you come to be at the airport in Hong Kong on Monday?

Well, I'm a Beijing correspondent for The Times, and I had been in Hong Kong for several days

reporting on these protests as they reached this breaking point. So I was headed home. I had packed

my bags, I had headed to the airport, and then suddenly my phone just started buzzing with alerts.

And I looked down and there were all these reports about mass chaos at the airport, about flights

being canceled, about protesters kind of taking over the terminal. So I hopped on the train and

headed out there. Already on the train, you could sort of sense this intense sense of unrest.

There were protesters just filling up the cars. They're all wearing their black t-shirts,

which is kind of a signature of this movement. You could sense the protest was building.

So I get off the train.

I'm here in the main arrivals hall of the Hong Kong airport, and there's a crowd of

people just sitting here. They're breaking the cheers.

It's usually this dull place, you know, where you just see a lot of businessmen and other people

lining up in the first-class lounges. But on this day, you look out and you just see a sea of people.

There was just no space to move at all. It was really just a sense of chaos and not knowing what might happen.

Sam and Hong Kong! Sam and Hong Kong! Sam and Hong Kong! Sam and Hong Kong! Sam and Hong Kong!

So I walked in, you know, thinking still that I could maybe catch my flight. So I ran up to the

departure's hall and it quickly became clear that that wasn't going to be possible. There were

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