It was an autumnal Hong Kong breeze, and it was blowing clouds of tear gas toward Jan Lin.

The 24-year-old from Vancouver was standing in a crowd, as some of its members tried to push their way through police fortifications Monday night to disrupt the siege underway at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University.

With hundreds of pro-democracy protesters trapped inside the campus, officers threw tear gas canisters at supporters on the outside and blasted them with a water canon throughout the night.

“It was hella smoky,” the 24-year-old Lin told The Star Vancouver, speaking from his apartment the next morning.

“The scariest part was when the police broke through the formation and were charging at a lot of people at the front. That creates a lot of chaos where people are trying to run away. We don’t know where to go because we are surrounded.”

In many ways, Hong Kong’s uprising has landed at Lin’s feet.

The business student has been in Hong Kong since September as part of an exchange program between B.C.’s Simon Fraser University and Hong Kong City University. For the first few weeks, he was largely untouched by the escalating protests between pro-democracy activists and police, which began peacefully in June.

The protests were sparked by proposed legislation that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China. But by the time the bill was withdrawn, the protests had hardened and broadened into a resistance movement against the territory’s government and against Beijing.

One day, as he walked near a protest, he said, a tear gas cannister landed next to him.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I couldn’t even see, I couldn’t even breathe.”

Disoriented, he ran out onto the road, into traffic. Then, someone reached out and guided him back onto the sidewalk. They rinsed his eyes and gave him food.

“That’s what touched me,” he said. “I don’t even know these people, I’m not from here. But that bond and that emotion that I felt — I felt like I needed to do something to help them.”

Hong Kong has a special place in Lin’s heart. Growing up in Vancouver, he said, he never felt like he truly belonged.

“I had a major identity issue with being an Asian kid in Canada,” he said. “We were kind of split with the idea of, ‘Should I stay more Asian or more whitewashed to fit in with the rest of the kids?’”

Lin travelled to Hong Kong several times with his family throughout his childhood, but said spending time in the cosmopolitan city as a young adult helped him explore what he “really liked the most” and what he “wanted himself to be.”

He could connect with both the historical Cantonese apects of the city and its Western colonial past. He spoke both main languages — Cantonese and English.

“It helped me be more comfortable in my own skin. That’s why I love Hong Kong so much,” he said.

“It feels like I’m at home.”

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So when the call came Monday that hundreds of protesters were trapped at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Lin picked up his things and went to the scene, just east of the busy shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui. He remembers looking into a store window displaying Rolex watches and walking past the Shangri-la hotel as he walked toward the smoke.

He says he was not on the front lines, where supporters used umbrellas to shield themselves from tear gas, but he could hear the calls from the front. There would be yelling to move back, then a cannister would land and everyone would disperse, only to come back and attempt to surge forward again. Lin said he was in the middle of the pack, passing on calls from the front for first aid and helping deliver medical supplies.

In the midst of such turmoil, Lin knows he could leave the city. Last week, City University cancelled the rest of the semester due to the increasing violence. Canadian universities, including Simon Fraser University, have been encouraging their students in Hong Kong to leave.

“There’s really no reason for me to stay,” he said. “But I love this city so much, and so many people are affected by it. I can’t just sit back and run away and not do anything.”

Lin is one of about 300,000 Canadians living in Hong Kong, and one of dozens of Canadians, if not more, there for post-secondary classes.

Canadian universities are warning their students in Hong Kong to make preparations to leave. In a statement to The Star Vancouver, Simon Fraser University said there were 17 students on exchange at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong.

“We have reached out to these students to check in on their well being, and to provide support as well as the latest travel advisories and guidance,” the media spokesperson said in an email. “All students have confirmed that they are safe and SFU is working with each student individually about navigating their return to Canada.”

The University of British Columbia confirmed that 11 exchange students had already left Hong Kong and the remaining 21 were “safe and accounted for.”

On Sunday, a person who said they were a University of Toronto exchange student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University posted anonymously on Facebook, saying they were trapped on campus and wanted to leave. But the consulate had limited availability to help, it alleged.

The University of Toronto said in a statement it does not have an exchange partnership with Hong Kong Polytechnic University. There are 20 students in Hong Kong registered with the university. Each of them has been contacted and is receiving assistance, according to a media spokeperson. So far just one Canadian school, Montreal's McGill University, has reported a partnership with Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

“The safety and security of Canadians abroad is the absolute priority of the government,” Global Affairs Canada said in a statement. “We continue to closely monitor the situation in Hong Kong and are seriously concerned by ongoing violence.”

With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press

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