Hong Kong Rally Marks Half-Year Anniversary of Democracy Protests

Hundreds gathered next to the Hong Kong government headquarters on Saturday to mark the half-year anniversary of mass democracy protests and vowed to press their fight for fully free elections for the city's next leader.

People handed out yellow ribbons, a symbol of the protests, and gave speeches in a carnival atmosphere in stark comparison to the scene on September 28 when police fired teargas at protesters in the same location.

The Asian financial centre witnessed months of unprecedented mass rallies, known as the Umbrella Movement, at the end of last year sparked by restrictions Beijing placed on how the city's next leader will be chosen in 2017.

"What's important today is that we all gather here together to commemorate the umbrella movement," Ed Chin, one of the organisers of the event, said to the crowd.

"In unity, we want to fight for democracy," Chin said.

"The hope is still there to fight for democracy even though it's very tough to talk to Beijing but we know if we just keep ourselves silent, nothing will happen," he later told Agence France Presse, adding that for many, it was just like old times.

"It's like a reunion."

Long queues formed at temporary stalls where volunteers handed out handmade umbrella movement paraphernalia, next to around 100 tents that have remained at the government complex even after major protest sites were cleared in December.

People who saw friends they made at the rallies exchanged hugs and reminisced while some sang "Do You Hear the People Sing?", which protestors adopted as their anthem.

Protesters shouted "Say no to fake democracy", as they raised yellow umbrellas at around 6:00 pm when the first canister of tear gas was fired half a year ago.

At their height the pro-democracy rallies saw tens of thousands blocking major streets demanding fully free elections. 

"It feels very intimate to be here again" 59-year-old security guard Jocy Lai told AFP.

"If we don't keep coming out, Hong Kong as we know it will erode," she said.

China has promised people in the semi-autonomous city the right to vote for their next leader in 2017, fulfilling a pledge made during the handover from Britain in 1997.

But Chinese authorities ruled in August that nominees must be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee -- a proposal activists have rejected as fake democracy.

A Beijing-approved proposal for how the 2017 election will be carried out is due to be put before the city's legislature in the coming months, but pro-democracy lawmakers have vowed to veto it.

Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 under a Sino-British joint declaration signed in 1984 which guaranteed political, social and economic freedoms not enjoyed on the Chinese mainland.