Police in Gansu tailed Dutch journalist Hans Moleman of Volkskrant newspaper and a Tibetan-speaking interpreter, insisting on the first day that he check out of his hotel in Xiahe because foreigners were not allowed to stay there.
On the second day, police followed Moleman to his hotel in Hezuo, came to his room and informed him that the entire area was off-limits to foreign journalists. On the third day, police followed the team from Hezuo 250 kilometers to Lanzhou, where local police then took up the tailing detail.
The men following the journalists also checked into the same hotel, and proceeded to follow them throughout the next day, including to the airport when the journalists left town. “I was able to get the story, though,” Moleman reported. “(I) had expected this sort of attention and had taken some precautions.”