Hong Kongers were energized by more than a crackdown 25 years ago in Beijing: many here want "universal suffrage", or in simpler words, "one-man one vote," for Hong Kong's local rule. Many are worried that the special freedoms granted to Hong Kongers is being challenged by pressure from "the mainland."
So I believe that the organizers estimate of 180,000 people is closer to the mark. Regardless, on many Sundays, many Hong Kongers fill Queen's road and march for universal suffrage. They want to elect their representatives directly, without having their legislators appointed by groups that are often loyal to the Chinese communist party.
It is interesting to see firsthand the evolution of the freedoms of people who have not had democracy. You don't see it explained very much in terms of the history of why Hong Kong didn't inherit democratic local rule from the British. As I remember it, Britain didn't grant Hong Kong local self-rule until it was instituted by the last British Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten. When Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997, China replaced this democratic system with a complex system in which only some of the legislators are voted in.
I have a few pictures of the event, including one of me with a Hong Konger who had just been born in 1989. He is holding the candle that had been held by his girlfriend, born after the events in 1989. (It was a long workday for my wife.) I have friends who have more. I have pictures of only two of the many fields covered with people. I mostly took pictures as the event was winding down -- I should have taken pictures of the big crowds going down to the subway to go home, to give a sense of the large numbers of people spread over a very big area.
A picture from the Associate Press, in the New York Times, which must have been taken from somewhere up above on the hill, shows many fields covered with people against the beautiful sunset on 2014 June 4.
