This is the image that a Chinese Acker saw in Sri Lanka's capital: local citizens waiting in a long line for refueling.
"They often have to stand here for seven or eight hours, and they don't necessarily have to buy gasoline that has risen tenfold."
As sri Lankans stormed the presidential palace, the Indian Ocean island nation also made the domestic hot list.
For Ak, who has only been in Sri Lanka for half a year, if you experience the magical adventures of the Indian island nation.
"I know now what it means that the whole country is bankrupt."
First, Acker, a young Chinese man who went to Sri Lanka to mine and search for treasure
Ak came to Sri Lanka at the beginning of this year.
It's not about traveling, it's not about reading, it's about mining here in search of gemstones.
Some say that Sri Lanka has two pillar industries: one is tourism, and the other is the gem industry.
Indeed, in Sri Lanka, because of its abundant minerals, the number of people engaged in the gem industry accounts for 1/3 of the country's total population, and many foreigners also come here to mine and look for business opportunities.
Sri Lanka is rich in a variety of gemstones: sapphires, rubies and more.
The world's largest sapphire, the "Adam's Star," is from Sri Lanka and weighs 1404.49 carats.
When Acker came to Sri Lanka, the first thing he did was to encounter a sharp rise in the price of local gasoline.
At first, the price of gasoline here was only about 5 yuan, but since March, the price has been almost one price per day, and it has been soaring.
"Here, the price curve of gasoline rises almost vertically."
In the end, the price of gasoline rose to more than 60 yuan, a tenfold increase.
Acker said: "And there is no market at all, even if you queue for more than ten hours, you can't add fuel, not only does the government not refuel private cars, but even the buses don't have gasoline, and all of them are stopped." ”
Worse than gasoline is the absence of food.
From April onwards, Acker found that the local supermarket was starving of food and nothing.
"There is no way, specially entrusted people to stock up a batch of instant noodles from other places for emergency use, otherwise they will starve to death."
In the end, there was no gas, no way to drink hot water, and no way to cook.
Most of the restaurants on the street have gone out of business.
Ake once nibbled on instant noodles and compressed biscuits every day at home, and as for the idea of digging for treasure, he couldn't take care of it.
Second, the citizens camped outside the presidential palace, and Ake was invited to join the company
In Sri Lanka, another thing that impressed Mr. Acker was that a neighbor invited him to camp outside the presidential palace, saying that there were foreigners like him there and that he had more international influence.
"I quickly refused, this is a matter of their country, how can I, a foreigner, stir it up?"
Of course, unlike the Chinese's thinking, some Europeans and Americans in Sri Lanka especially like to mix it up.
When Acker met several Europeans and Americans in Sri Lanka, he expressed a high degree of enthusiasm and interest in such civil strife in the country.
"Probably because of their European and American nature, they like to participate in this kind of thing."
Sure enough, in the photos of the later seizure of the presidential palace, there were figures of European and American people.
Opponents' camps outside the presidential palace are getting bigger and bigger: from the first few hundred, to tens of thousands later, to the last hundred thousand.
Due to the sheer size, the existence of this opponent's camp can even be seen from satellite maps.
Before the capture of the presidential palace, Acker had visited once.
Unlike what you might think, these camps are no different from ordinary slums: the only difference is that for a few hours a day, these citizens will shout slogans around the presidential palace to get the president to step down.
After shouting the slogan, what to do, everything is back to normal.
Third, when the presidential palace was occupied, Akke's perception: the overall situation was relatively stable
On July 9, when hundreds of thousands of citizens stormed the presidential palace, Acker was still eating at a street restaurant.
At that time, a Sri Lankan partner called Ak and said that something big had happened: the presidential palace had been captured, the president had disappeared, and the prime minister had fled.
The partner asked Acker with concern if he wanted to come to his house to take shelter.
"But I see that the street is very normal, what should everyone do, and they have not come out to take advantage of the opportunity to smash and rob."
"Unlike countries in the Middle East, Sri Lankans have a milder personality, don't break out until the end, and there's not much street violence."
Just in case, after Ake finished eating, he rushed to the supermarket to stock up on a batch of grain and mineral water.
Family and friends at home persuaded Acker to return home so that it would be safer.
But Acker wanted to wait.
The next day, calm quickly returned to the streets of the capital, and even Acker was surprised: the capture of hundreds of thousands of people disappeared in an instant.
Everyone should continue to queue up to refuel, continue to rush to the supermarket to buy food, and continue to eat in restaurants.
The only addition is that social media platforms are circulating photos of citizens posing in the presidential palace.
Acker even joked that the seizure of the presidential palace was more like an Internet celebrity punch-in operation.