Protests against the Japanese government's "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands were seen in major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on Saturday.

Protesters gathered outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing starting at around 9 a.m., with several thousand protestors there at the peak of the protest. Armed police stopped some protesters as they attempted to climb over the guardrails and break into the embassy compound.

About 200 people in Shanghai also staged a protest in front of the Japanese consulate on Saturday morning under police supervision.

In Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, several hundred people held banners and chanted slogans outside a hotel that houses the city's Japanese consulate before being dispersed by police.

Demonstrations were also reported in cities across the country, including Changsha, Qingdao, Xi'an, Chongqing, Zhengzhou and Kunming.

Protesters have shouted slogans asserting the Chinese ownership of the Diaoyu Islands or recalling the humiliation brought by the Japanese occupation during the Second World War. Armed police and police officers have been dispatched to protest sites to maintain order.