Opinion: A day and night at the Hong Kong protests

1 NEWS’ Kimberlee Downs reports from Hong Kong, where flights, roads and rail lines have ground to a halt.

Kimberlee Downs is in Hong Kong covering the clashes between protestors and police as calls for greater democratic freedoms intensify.

"Monday, go on strike!"

Thousands of people, clad in black, faces covered, many holding opened umbrellas chant through Causeway Bay station.

"Monday, go on strike!"

It's claustrophobic, but they're not pushy. Just determined.

1 NEWS reporter Kimberlee Downs has this Monday morning update from Hong Kong.

"Monday, go on strike!"

Their protest morphed from a planned rally to a spontaneous one as they work to avoid riot police, positioned with shields and tear gas on closed roads.

They don't want to be recognised.

The umbrellas are to shield whatever part of their faces are still exposed to surveillance cameras. They also cover the people who are making the more drastic protests.

A man leans down with a can of spray paint, and half a dozen people surround him with umbrellas.

When they disperse, 'Liberation of Hong Kong, age of revolution' is written in the middle of the road of the popular shopping district.

Someone walks up to a traffic light, and another half dozen people surround him with umbrellas too.

When they leave, the traffic light is disabled.

Other people flash laser lights at CCTV cameras to render them useless, while others remove median barriers to make them into road blocks.

Someone has supplied hundreds of zip ties to help.

It's all part of a plan to bring Hong Kong to a standstill on Monday, to send another message to a government they are furious at.

And in part, fearful of.

The police have increasingly been responding to months of protests with violence.

Protestors want an inquiry into how police have acted as part of their broader demands.

Mostly they still want the extradition bill that would send some people to China to be tried under the communist system to be completely withdrawn.

Read: Fears of escalated violence as Hong Kong hits their ninth consecutive weekend of protests

At another protest in Tseung Kwan O, thousands are drawn to the streets.

There are fewer face masks in this residential area and a more relaxed vibe in the early afternoon. Families are taking part and small children wave at the media.

We are thanked, multiple times by different people, just for being there to cover it. A woman offers us energy drinks.

We estimate there are more than 1000 people in the park where we are based, but when we walk out we realise it's many, many more than that.

Dozens of medics are on hand, just in case.

It is the ninth straight weekend of protests.

We asked one man if he thinks anything will change. He's not so sure.

But they'll fight for their freedoms just the same, he says, because they are Hong Kongers.

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