Hundreds of green bicycles are prepared as 960 of them await riders for the new year gala at the Temple of Heaven Park on December 29, 2011 in Beijing, China. Annual New Year countdown ceremony will be held at the park on December 31. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)

A Chinese girl touches the gun of a relievo featuring Chinese soldiers fighting with Japanese troops during World War II at an exhibition at the Anti-Japan War Museum to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japan on August 18, 2005 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

Air conditioners, more than 500 in total, hang on the wall of an office building on August 15, 2011 in Fuzhou, Fujiang Province of China. This 25-story office building was built with no central air conditioner system, each office has it own individual unit installed on the exterior creating this wall of air conditioners. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

A female honor guard has lipstick applied as they prepare for an official welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on June 11, 2014. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

The vendors show the toy of snake at the Spring Festival Temple Fair for celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year of Snake at the Temple of Earth park on February 9, 2013 in Beijing, China. The Chinese Lunar New Year of Snake also known as the Spring Festival, which is based on the Lunisolar Chinese calendar, is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the lunar year and ends with Lantern Festival on the Fifteenth day. (Photo by Feng Li)

Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's 1st Airborne Brigade soldiers board a CH-47 helicopter for parachute drop training during their military drill at Higashifuji training field in Susono, west of Tokyo, July 8, 2013. Japan faces increasingly serious threats to its security from an assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea, a defence ministry report said on Tuesday, as ruling politicians call for the military to beef up its ability to respond to such threats. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

Reuters photographer Bobby Yip took a series of portraits of people taking part in the “Occupy Central” protests in Hong Kong, and asked them why they had joined the demonstrations. China rules Hong Kong under a “one country, two systems” formula that accords the territory limited democracy. Tens of thousands of mostly student protesters are demanding Beijing give them full democracy, with the freedom to nominate election candidates. The unrest is the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule over the former British colony in 1997. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)