If you were stuck in traffic in around the Yuexiu District of Guangzhou yesterday, then you should know there’s a perfectly good reason for it: someone has a grievance with their village council, and you need to be inconvenienced because of it.

On the morning of April 9 at around 8am, a man later identified as Mr Liang climbed up a traffic sign at Xiaobei Road and North Military Drill Road. Dressed in red and wearing a hat, the man was brandishing a metal rod and a drink, as though he had planned to be up there for a long time.

Whenever police or firefighters would draw near, Liang would brandish his metal rod to force his back, reported Nandu. Liang’s actions had drawn a lot of attention and caused a huge backup of traffic in the area, especially with ongoing construction in the area.

It was finally at around 11:14am when an unidentified man dressed in blue managed to get past the police cordon and climb up the traffic sign to join Liang. Perhaps a soldier out of uniform or Jack Reacher on his Asia tour, the unidentified man in blue was able to quickly and easily subdue and disarm Liang.

Pictures show a hand-to-hand confrontation worthy of any action movie climax:

After being subdued by the man in blue, firefighters would use a cherry picker to lower the two men down to the ground.

The man in red was immediately arrested and identified as Mr Liang, 41, from Huadu, Guangzhou. His family is said to have an unresolved grievance with his local village committee, and has taken his protest to the provincial capital. Liang had previously inconvenienced commuters by climbing signs and protesting at Dongfeng Road and Jiangwan Daqiao.

After performing his civic duty, the mysterious man in blue disappeared as swiftly as he appeared, not even leaving behind his name, possibly to reappear wherever protesters may cause face-losing incidents.

Photos: Nandu