By Emily Ho

Editor's Note: The writer, a long-time businesswoman, recently closed her ice-cream shop after falling victim to Hong Kong's soaring rents and property prices.

CAUSEWAY BAY, Hong Kong – In this neighborhood, people usually shop until they drop as part of daily life in an over-crowded, capitalist city. Local salespeople cheerfully use Putonghua to greet big spenders from the Chinese mainland. Hawkers from China yell out in Cantonese to budget-conscious locals, all wanting every available dollar from wallets or credit-card limits.

On one day each year, many local people abandon the fanciful shopping malls, instead taking to the streets in a protest march to express their “annual” disappointment in governance. For nine straight years, a massive march has taken place on July 1, typically a hot and humid day. Most recently, an estimated 218,000 people marched to show discontent with inept officials and misguided policies.

Ironically, July 1 also is a holiday to “celebrate” the 1997 “handover” of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. But most Hong Kong people have nothing to celebrate and much to protest.

Hong Kong people, regarded as among the world’s “hardest workers”, have turned a once-tiny fishing village into a global financial hub, creating an economic miracle and a political haven for seven million mostly Chinese people to enjoy “a high degree” of political freedom and basic human rights.

Still, Hong Kong is a small place where most locals won't or can't move to other Chinese cities to make a living due to differences in living standards and political systems. Most aren't like the expatriates who can return to their home countries if they foresee a threat. Nor do they resemble the wealthy people who packed up and took small fortunes when immigrating overseas before Beijing gained control and then returned later for more opportunities. Such distinctions are exactly why the people who chose to stay and regard Hong Kong as home feel frustrated. They have nowhere, absolutely nowhere, to go, even when the economic and political future looks dim.

This year, I joined the protest march for the first time. Previously, I always had a shop to run, but due to an unexpected rent-hike, my business had to close, as happens to many shopkeepers.

After waiting for more than an hour in Victoria Park, the protest congregation point, my friends and I slowly moved out along with hordes of other people on our “long” march. Believe me, no one would choose to stand and walk under the searing sun except for important causes and serious grievances.

One friend, who had marched nearly every year, said the weather this time actually was “better” than sometimes. Regardless, my head ached a little, and I felt like the sun's rays might penetrate my body through the umbrella I held and the hat I wore. Some toddlers cried in discomfort, and parents tried to sooth them by waving fans.

To my surprise, old people showed the greatest determination, most of them muttering not a word about discomfort while strolling silently, holding their walking sticks, in the crowd. When a young Western friend expressed impatience with the rally's slow pace, I told him to watch those elderly people and he stopped frowning.

Despite the risk of heat stroke, we all continued marching. Most of the participants had sacrificed holiday time. They could have enjoyed dim-sum with family, attended a movie with friends or rested at home. Everyone had other things they could have done.

I sensed the depth of public discontent when hearing some people chant phrases like “Sik Si” (meaning “eat shit”) and “Puk Kaai” (“drop dead”) along with the names of senior government officials and property tycoons. Personally, I don't advocate the use of foul language when protesting.

Hong Kong has endured many periods of turmoil and discontent. Consider the street riots in 1967 and the pre-handover time before 1997. The stock market crashed in 1973, 1987, 1997 and 2008. All these situations led to many investors and speculators going bankrupt. In 2003, a contagious disease called SARS crippled the economy, causing serious unemployment.

Each time, Hong Kong bounced back quickly and became stronger. But recently we find that our government not only appears hopeless, but turns deaf ears to ordinary people's demands, ignoring the need for a fairer and more progressive society. Often I'm amazed that people can survive when a median salary isn't enough even to rent a decent flat, when the new “minimum wage” is less than half of those in developed countries and when Hong Kong “proudly” ranks among the world's most expensive places.

Obviously, squalid living conditions have returned. Too many young people or immigrant families must pack into 10-by-12-foot tenement units in hazardous old buildings. Similar situations existed more than 50 years ago when Chinese refugees rushed into Hong Kong. Now we see too many setbacks, not enough improvements.

As I walked in the protest march along Hennessy Road and looked up at the old buildings, I kept thinking of the people living in such undesirable conditions. I noticed an old lady with a hunched back, who collected aluminum cans for a living, waiting eagerly for a traffic light as if she had waited her whole life for a pension system. A passing tram showed a government advertisement boasting of the new minimum wage (HK$28 per hour, about US$3.60). Suddenly, I felt ashamed of being from Hong Kong and wanted to grab a banner to cover the ad so that tourists wouldn't be misled by it. No wonder that some protesters waved old colonial flags. Probably they miss “the good old days".

This is not progression.

How many thousands more people missed the protest march because they had to work to eke out a living? Maybe they washed restaurant dishes for 12 hours or stood all day at a cash register in a chain store.

An influx of Chinese-mainland money, that buys up Hong Kong's housing, medical services, education and even baby-formula, makes the place look prosperous, doesn't it? Is the prosperity built at the expense of hardworking, grass-roots people who can't share in the “good times”?

Where does all that money really go? It's not to most people working in Hong Kong. The benefiting minority, like property developers, landlords and real-estate agents, control an expensive and scarce asset: land. They may ask for more favors, confident that government policy backs them.

This isn't fair – not at all.

We decided to leave the march before reaching the Government Building in Central because that's where the most radical protests happen. But who can blame the disenchanted young people who see no future prospects? Mostly older, my friends and I prefer to protest in silence and in a controlled manner, unlike the “hot-blooded” youngsters who need to vent their anger and frustration. More power to them so long as they avoid breaking laws.