Thousands of Hong Kong protesters have marched for full democracy and called on the Chinese-controlled city's leader to resign, just weeks after lawmakers voted down an electoral reform package backed by Communist Party leaders in Beijing.
Some protesters known as "localists", fighting for greater autonomy and even independence from China, held up signs calling for a "Hong Kong nation", while others waved Hong Kong's old colonial-era flags featuring Union flags.
"I want real universal suffrage" the crowds chanted on a sweltering day, with many holding yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the Umbrella Movement last year when protesters blocked major roads to pressure Beijing to allow direct elections in 2017.
"The Umbrella Movement has not come to an end, because we have not got genuine universal suffrage," said Eve Lam, a 53-year-old office assistant who was handing out paper umbrellas to passers-by.
The crowds, closely watched by scores of police, were thinner than a year ago when some half a million people showed up for the annual July 1 march on the anniversary of the city's return to China in 1997.
Then, police arrested more than 500 people who blocked a road in the financial district, a prelude to the Occupy movement in late September.
"CY Leung step down," shouted student democracy leader Joshua Wong to the passing crowds, referring to leader Leung Chun-ying. "Remake the future of our city. Build a democratic Hong Kong."
Hong Kong and Chinese officials attended a flag-raising ceremony in the morning with helicopter fly-bys and the playing of China's national anthem.
The protest march comes nearly two weeks after Hong Kong's legislature vetoed a Beijing-backed electoral reform proposal that had triggered the sometimes violent protests in the city, presenting Beijing with one of its most serious challenges in years.
Hong Kong leader Mr Leung called for the city to move forward.
"Even though political reforms have taken up considerable effort and time, the Hong Kong government will strengthen economic development and improve people's livelihoods," he said in a speech.
Hong Kong returned to China under a "one country, two systems" formula that granted the city wide-ranging freedoms denied in mainland China.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article