HONG KONG, China - No compulsory drug testing in schools. Free Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. End corruption in the property sector. Give Hong Kong universal suffrage in 2012. Include domestic workers in minimum wage legislation. Save a radio station from government ownership.

CNN's Miranda Leitsinger with Leonard So,who painted his body white to support freedom of expression.

The demands from the crowd at Victoria Park in Hong Kong on July 1 were many. I had been sent to the park for the second time in a month to cover an anniversary – this time the handover of the city by Britain to China in 1997.

I did not know what to expect –- would it be a parade, a march or a protest? - but did not have to look far to find out. People approached me on some issues, while I – intrigued by the many multi-colored banners, stickers, T-shirts and activists jockeying about with megaphones and collection boxes – approached others.

“First of July is the day for Hong Kong people to speak out what they want!” said Cindy Leung, 52, who came from three hours away to join the protest with her husband. “Different groups, different aims; actually we group together to demonstrate.”

Leung supports universal suffrage in Hong Kong for 2012 – a date pushed back by the government last year to 2017. She was upset with the fact that they could not elect their own leader.

“For many years, Hong Kong people, we were just concerned about our living standard, maybe money, but after 1989 (Tiananmen Square crackdown) we put our concern on to our country, and after 1997 (Hong Kong handed over to China) we put our concern on to our own place. Yeah, that’s good, we improve.”

“Among us, we got something to say, to speak out, to express.” See more photos of protests

And speak out they did. There were young people, parents toting children in their arms, students and the elderly (Since I arrived here in 2007 I have always been impressed by the number of senior citizens I see marching through the streets of Hong Kong in support of one cause or another – especially during the searing heat, which on this day reached 32 degrees Celsius).

As I looked around at the thousands of people, I realized once again – just like with the Tiananmen vigil – that this is the one place in China where these types of protests can happen freely. When I covered the vigil, I met a girl from southern China who told me there was one line in her textbook about the Tiananmen crackdown, and that her history teacher told students about it – but only outside the classroom walls.

She said in Hong Kong she could find books about Tiananmen and learn about the country’s dark chapter, and she wanted to join the vigil because it might be the only time she could.

Mak Yin Ting, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association, whose organization was collecting signatures for the release of the dissident Liu, echoed those comments.

“If China cannot remain open, Hong Kong as part of the special administrative region of China, it may be affected, too. That’s why the self-censorship of Hong Kong became more serious after the handover,” she said. “You can see the interaction between the two places. So that’s why I say asking for the release of Liu Xiaobo is also a very important message and the meaning behind is that we are angry with the suppression of freedom of expression in China.

“Opposing the suppression of the freedom of expression in China also helps to maintain the freedom of expression in Hong Kong.”

Leonard So, a 21-year-old originally from Hong Kong who has spent 10 years living in New Zealand, painted his body white to support freedom of expression in Hong Kong.

"My main purpose is to support the Hong Kong people to hold on to freedom and democracy while they still have it," he said. "We got to hold on to it and speak what we want to speak while we have freedom."

I had wondered since I moved to Hong Kong from Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory with strong activism) whether or not people here were concerned about democratic freedoms or what issues they were passionate about.

What I found on this day was, yes, there does seem to be quite a few who have something to say on issues they feel strongly about – and I was fortunate to learn about them.