A sea of people....

So I went to the July 1st rally in HK today. Short story, it was for democracy. Long story is, well, google it. =)

I wasn't there as a demonstrator, but as an observer with this non-proft group I'm volunteering with right now. Basically, we had this agreement with the police to act as neutral observers and monitors of the march. If anything happens, like an altercation between a demonstrator and a police officer, our job is to take notes as a neutral party.

Let me just say, it was INSANE......Have you ever seen hundreds of thousands of people in one spot? Well, neither had I, until yesterday. At one point, we were asked to stand in one spot and make a estimate of the number of people marching past it. I don't know to accurately describe counting thousands of people walking peacefully by you, only to see a never-ending stream of people behind them and still coming your way. I think by the end, there were estimates of between 200,000 to 530,000 people, though I would definitely lean towards the higher estimate.

I don't think the numbers were the most striking thing about the march though. If you looked closely at the people streaming by, you would notice old people, young people, students, white/brown/yellow people, locals, bananas (Chinese born/raised abroad), tourists, entire families, people in wheelchairs.....you name it. Basically, it consisted of lots of people who, given any other day, would never have been in the same spot at each other. But on one of the hottest days of the year (with the humidity, it felt like it was over 50C, that's over 110F for you American folk), on a national holiday when they could have just stayed in their air-conditioned homes and rested, they all felt there was an important enough reason to come out. Who says that people power is dead?