Thousands of protesters poured into a main road in Hong Kong for a pro-democracy rally Friday, hoping to revive the civil disobedience movement that shook communist China’s capitalist hub last month.

Protesters said they were determined to maintain their campaign for open elections in 2017, undaunted by the city government's rejection of planned talks aimed at defusing the standoff between demonstrators and authorities in the former British colony, which was transferred to Chinese rule in 1997 under an arrangement that promised residents political freedoms that mainland China doesn’t have.

On Friday crowds filled part of Hong Kong’s busy Admiralty area near the city's government headquarters, chanting, "Our Hong Kong, ours to save."

Tens of thousands of people, many of them students, began occupying the semiautonomous city's streets in late September to protest Beijing's restrictions on the first-ever direct elections for Hong Kong’s leader, a vote promised for 2017.

Beijing has said a 1,200-member committee — which critics say is stacked with pro-government elites — should nominate two or three candidates before the public votes. Protesters say this does not amount to genuine democracy.

While the crowds Friday were not as large as those seen as the height of the protests, they included more older protesters than before. Many of those gathered near a stage in the main protest zone were young people, including high school students in uniform, but there were also office workers who came straight from work.

"We don't want to see a government that treats people this way, where thousands can protest for weeks on the street and not get any response at all," said Natalie Or, 16.

"Maybe they think if they keep delaying, people will disperse on their own, but my friends and I aren't going anywhere,” she said. “I'll come for months. I'll stay for a year. I'll stay for as long as it takes."

The resurgence came after a week that saw waning support for the protests, which blocked thoroughfares in three of Hong Kong's busiest areas for two weeks. While some of the roads have reopened to traffic, a main route through the heart of the business district remains occupied.

On Friday scores arrived with tents, suggesting they were in for the long haul despite a call by police to remove obstacles. Police said they would take action at an appropriate time, without specifying what they meant. The government has repeatedly urged protesters to withdraw from the streets and allow the city to return to normal.

When the government canceled planned talks with protesters this week, it said grounds for dialogue had been "severely undermined" by the students' call for more people to occupy streets. The city's chief secretary, Carrie Lam, said the talks were off because of the students' unswerving demands for universal suffrage, which she said was not in accordance with the city's mini-constitution. She also cited what she described as the protesters’ illegal occupation of parts of the city and calls for people to rally.

Student leaders, however, say it is up to the government to resolve the crisis.

"If they do not give a just, reasonable answer to all the occupiers, there is no reason to persuade people to retreat," said Alex Chow of the Federation of Students, one of the groups involved in the pro-democracy protests.

Al Jazeera and wire services. Divya Gopalan contributed to this report from Hong Kong.