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It’s starting to look like it will be a long, hot summer in rural China. And the tinder is already very dry.

A Chinese village has become a tourist attraction after residents fought a pitched battle with police, who retreated after dozens were injured. Local residents say the riots started after police manhandled a group of elderly women protesting at pollution caused by local chemical plants. The unrest is one of a series of recent outbursts of frustration and anger in rural China, over various issues.

Residents say tens of thousands of people from nearby towns and cities have flocked each day to visit the site of last Sunday’s confrontation, in the village of Huaxi, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. Thousands of angry villagers forced a huge contingent of police to beat a humiliating retreat. The debris left after the riot is still lying there for all to see. Chinese internet bulletin boards have shown photographs of the overturned buses, used to ferry in the police, with their windows shattered.

Put yourself inside the mind of a peasant who stops his daily, hardscrabble life, pays out bus far, and travels to a place where being seen could have very negative consequences. The fact that so many would take such a tangible and risky step in an area that should be within reach of Shanghai’s surging prosperity suggests considerable discontent.