June 4 (part 2)

We went to Victoria park for the June 4th vigil last night and it was absolutely packed. I'm sure there will be the normal debates about the numbers (150,000 was the figure being talked about at the park) but regardless of what estimate is made of the number the fact is that Victoria Park was full. There were, quite simply, as many people at the park as you can fit in Victoria Park.

For those of you who know Victoria Park, that means that all the football pitches from the Tin Hau end to the Causeway Bay end were completely packed with people and also the grass areas beyond the pitches. And not just people spread out over those areas but really full, with people climbing up on walls around the entrance just to get a chance to see something and people arriving and giving up because they couldn't get past the entrance.

Encouragingly, there were also many young people there. Of course Donald Tsang's remarks about June 4th in Legco last month helped to motivate people to go and Hong Kong demonstrated as clearly as it is possible to do that they rejected completely the idea that Tsang's view of June 4th "represents the opinion of Hong Kong people in general."

Of course, this being Hong Kong, at the end of the demonstration they turned on the floodlights and people scraped up the candle wax from the football pitches, tidied up and went quietly and peacefully home. Makes me proud to be part of this wonderful city.

[I'll post a few rough and ready photos later; the SCMP photographer got the aerial shot that gives you a good idea of what it was like here and SCMP video footage is here.]