Hong Kong enjoyed a rare calm weekend after 10 weeks of civil unrest, with no violent clashes reported Sunday as up to 1.7 million protesters turned local streets into seas of umbrellas amid torrential rains.

Riot police who have repeatedly clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators kept a low profile and did not attempt to block the paths of the umbrella-wielding protesters flowing through the Chinese city.

When one group of dissidents lingered outside a government complex, other protesters, and not police, encouraged them to go home.

“We hope to see whether the government gives a response to this peaceful protest,” said Michael Leung, a 24-year-old who was ushering his fellow demonstrators away. “If we get a negative response, we cannot control the next [gathering].”

Bonnie Leung, an organizer for the Civil Human Rights Front, which launched three earlier massive marches in the embattled city since June, said, “We hope we can show the world that Hong Kong people can be totally peaceful.”

The earlier protests had been increasingly marked by violent clashes with police and included a mass invasion of the city’s airport that forced more than 100 flight cancellations.

On Wednesday, demonstrators clashed with cops who fired tear gas at the crowd outside a police station in the residential Sham Shui Po neighborhood, where a vigil was taking place.

A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to Beijing in 1997 under the framework of “one country, two systems,” which promised the island’s residents certain democratic rights not afforded to people in mainland China.

But many pro-democracy Hong Kongers pushed back this year, accusing the Communist Party-ruled central government of increasingly eroding their freedoms.

Protestors are demanding the resignation of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, democratic elections and an independent investigation into police abuse.

“We will stand here, we will take action, until they respond to us,” said Harley Ho, a 20-year-old social worker who attended Sunday’s rally. “In the rain, our spirit becomes stronger.”

While police granted approval for the rally, they didn’t OK an accompanying march. Demonstrators nevertheless fanned out and filled the streets, as there was not enough space at the designated assembly area.

Public trains did not stop at stations near the assembly because of overcrowding.

Jimmy Shan of the Civil Human Rights Front said the group estimated that at least 1.7 million people took part in the rally. He said the figure did not include those who were not able to make it to Victoria Park — where the march began — due to traffic constraints.

Police, whose crowd figures are generally lower than the organizers’ estimates, said the turnout at the assigned location and during the designated time period was 128,000. Many protesters, however, did not follow the pre-approved guidelines laid out by the authorities.

In Beijing, You Wenze, a spokesman for China’s ceremonial legislature, condemned statements from US lawmakers supportive of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

You called the lawmakers’ comments “a gross violation of the spirit of the rule of law, a blatant double standard and a gross interference in China’s internal affairs.”

He said Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people and the Chinese population as a whole reject the actions of a “very small group of violent protesters,” as well as “any interference of foreign forces.”