Tens of thousands of Hong Kong people dressed in white poured onto the streets yesterday to vent their frustration at Chinese rule and challenge Beijing’s refusal to allow them to elect their own leaders.

Waving green and black banners and sheltering under umbrellas from the searing sun, protesters chanting “Return power to the people, fight for democracy” streamed from a park to government offices in the heart of the city several kilometres away. Organisers said tens of thousands of people had gathered by mid-afternoon and estimated that as many as 300,000 people would join the march on the seventh anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China, a public holiday. “I am here to tell Beijing that we want democracy, we want to elect our own chief executive,” explained construction worker Chan Sum Kee, 54, who said he was marching in a protest for the first time in his life. Many protesters wore white t-shirts, marking hopes for greater democracy and freedom.

Last year, half a million demonstrators took to the streets wearing black to symbolise despair over a string of government missteps, including a controversial draft law that would have outlawed acts of treason against China.

Earlier, in an unusually low-key ceremony to celebrate the 1997 handover, Beijing’s handpicked leader for Hong Kong made only a passing reference to the debate over elections, telling dignitaries that full democracy would come only gradually. “According to the Basic Law (Hong Kong’s mini-constitution), to achieve universal suffrage gradually is our common goal,” Tung Chee-hwa told assembled dignitaries, speaking in Cantonese. Unlike past years, no Chinese leader was present at the ceremony, which analysts speculated was due to the march to take place later in the day.

Beijing is watching the march closely and has sent a team to Hong Kong to monitor it. A large turnout at the rally could embarrass Chinese leaders and heighten Communist Party fears that demands for more democracy could spill over to the mainland. It could also be a barometer for how pro-democracy politicians will fare in elections in September as they try to wrest control of Hong Kong’s top lawmaking body, the Legislative Council, from pro-China supporters. Protesters last year denounced Tung’s inability to revive the struggling economy, the government’s handling of the SARS epidemic and high unemployment.