In C unsafe code is typically marked by surrounding it with {braces}.

Good one! ;-)

Unlike the other slew of "memory safe languages", Rust aims for a middle ground of sorts where "unsafe" is more visible and acknowledged but also guarded against. It's a rather third way of treating the inevitable escape hatches. It's more about how it's taught and treated socially that makes Rust's unsafe a different experience from, say, how C or alternatively Java approaches "unsafe".