Many parents on Wednesday afternoon waited outside schools in Hong Kong to pick up their kids.
This scene, very common elsewhere in China, was much expected in Hong Kong after rioters disrupted traffic by blocking roads and torching mass transit railway stations, and vandalized school vans to force suspension of classes last week.
A Mr. Yim especially asked for half a day's leave from his company to wait outside the Kiangsu and Chekiang Primary School.
"Normally our nanny came to pick up my son," he told Xinhua. "But I was worried after all the chaos, and decided to come by myself."
His son is a first-grader in the school, where classes were suspended since last Thursday.
"According to schedule, students were supposed to have exams last week," he said. "But because of the riots, exams were postponed, and my son studied at home. So we as parents had to take leave and stay with him. The unrest affected not only his schooling, but also our work."
During these days they didn't dare to go too far, even at the weekend, for fear that black-clad rioters would paralyze traffic again and they could not return home.
Ms. Chow's daughter is also a year-one student who entered the Kiangsu and Chekiang Primary School in September. "Since then we witnessed deterioration of the situation in Hong Kong," she said.
"In the past week, we counted the days, hoping that schools could resume classes soon."
However, resumption of classes does not mean that parents and students could feel immediately relieved.
"We have no idea if classes would be suspended again," said a ninth grader in the Wah Yan College who only gave his surname as So. "The unrest in the past months affected our study in various ways," he said. "I wonder why some students chose to join the rioters and take to the streets?"
Another student surnamed Cheung noticed that some sections of the roads were still blocked. Therefore the trip to school cost him an extra half an hour. "But after all I managed to make it to school. Some of our schoolmates failed to show up today."
As the primary schools, secondary schools and some special schools resumed classes on Wednesday, kindergartens and other special schools still remained closed.
A mother of a kindergarten boy, who declined to be named, hoped that social order will be restored soon in Hong Kong.
"It is our wish that children's lives and safety would not be affected any longer, so that they could grow up in a peaceful environment," she said.
