By Vincent Ni, BBC News Chinese reporter

There has been very limited coverage of the protests on mainland China

The top story from the official Xinhua News Agency today highlights President Xi’s visit to Bishkek.

Even on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, search results for phrases referring to the massive protests in Hong Kong are not shown - unless they are posts toeing the Beijing line.

The editor of the Chinese state newspaper Global Times posted on Twitter to condemn the protests as something which was "not supposed to happen in Hong Kong".

But the stringent media censorship in mainland China does not mean Chinese citizens are completely ignorant of what is happening across the border.

Some curious social media users have been asking online: "What's going on in Hong Kong?"

Some mainland Chinese people were seen joining the protests in Hong Kong over the weekend, and others have shown their solidarity on Wechat, another popular social media platform.

“Although this is Hong Kongers’ fight, the love for freedom and dignity is universal,” wrote one Wechat user. “I salute to their struggle and effort. I just hope that we are not going to see a bloody crackdown.”