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Authorities in Hong Kong remove barricades in the pro-democracy protest site that has been choking the city for more than two months. (Reuters)

HONG KONG Police dismantled the last barricades at Hong Kongs main pro-democracy protest site Thursday and arrested more than 200 activists in an emotion-laden end to a campaign of civil disobedience that had lasted more than two months.

The protests, which began with a surge of optimism in late September, ended without any significant concessions from the governments of Hong Kong or China. Still, some protest leaders chanted We will be back as they were carried into police vans after they staged a sit-in.

The demonstrations represented one of the most serious challenges to Beijings authority since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Although Hong Kongs protesters did not achieve their objective to force Beijing to roll back its controls over elections in the former British colony their supporters said they had awakened a generation to the need to hold on to democratic goals.

Earlier in the day, workers in white helmets and then police methodically dismantled the barricades at the site, meeting no resistance from the activists.

The exercise brought to a close 11 weeks of protests in Hong Kongs Admiralty district, where hundreds of tents had been erected alongside study areas, a stage and first-aid stations. The occupation had filled an eight-lane highway beside key government buildings and on the edge of the financial district with pro-democracy banners dangling from bridges and artwork on display throughout the site.

The protests drew about 100,000 people at their height. Although the crowds gradually decreased, about 10,000 people gathered at the Admiralty site for a rally Wednesday evening.

Before police moved in Thursday, protesters packed up many of their tents and carried away some of the artwork. Student leaders rallied the dwindling crowds, which chanted for full democracy and universal suffrage. Banners at the site promised Its only the beginning.

By late afternoon, just about 200 protesters remained, sitting on the road in a final act of civil disobedience.

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Hong Kong police dismantle pro-democracy protest site, making more than 200 arrests

After 75 days of protests, occupations and myriad clashes with police, Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement seems to have reached a dead-end. On Wednesday, police dismantled barricades at the last main occupation site in the city's Admiralty district and arrested some 200 protesters who refused to leave the site.

The protests were led by a coalition ofstudent groups and Occupy Hong Kong activists who captured the world's attention when they first took to the streetsin late September. They were angry with Beijing's decision to vet candidates in future Hong Kong elections -- a sign that China's one-party state had no interest in allowing full universal suffrage in the former British colony.The occupations that followed, which snarled traffic in three locations across the city, lasted longer than anyone initially thought they could.

They were organized, colorful, inspiring. Protesters fed and cared for each other, made artwork, ran teach-ins, shared tents. Solidarity marches took place in cities around the world. Their days ofstandoff with police, iconic umbrellas in hand, offered some of the more stirring scenes of resistance we've seen this year.The movement in Hong Kong seemed to signal the greatest challenge to Beijing's authority since the 1989 student protests that culminated in the crackdown at Tiananmen Square.

But as the sun rose on Thursday, Hong Kong's bustling thoroughfares were mostly absent of signs of entrenched dissent. The students, for all their efforts, had won no real concessions from either Beijing or Hong Kong's local government.

Yet protest leaders, many of whom are in their early 20s, are taking the long view.

"It definitely isnt the end of Hong Kongs democratic movement," said Lester Shum, a charismatic student leader. "It is unrealistic to think a single movement can change everything. Real civil disobedience is long term, so we must equip ourselves so we can organize better and rally more people from different parts of society."

The protests, as many observe, have laid down a generational marker. A considerable proportion of the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets over the past three months were fromthe first generation of Hong Kongers tohave grown up mostly under rule from Beijing, in conditions far removed from the hardships and economic uncertainties of an earlier era.

Benny Tai, an academicat Hong Kong University and one of the main leaders of Hong Kong's Occupy movement, offered this historical frame forwhat's happening in the Chinese territory in an op-ed for the New York Times:

These young people grew up in a vastly different Hong Kong from that of their elders, who were raised with much less prosperity and security. For many older people, survival was a daily challenge. Having had that past, older generations prioritize economic security and social order, even though many have transcended the tougher times of their youth.

The younger generations, meanwhile, came of age when economic and physical security were no longer major concerns. Their values reflect this: They focus much more on self-expression, sustainability, fairness and justice.

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WorldViews: Whats next for Hong Kongs democracy movement

Alex Chow, a leader from the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said further protests would follow as part of a renewed push for greater democratic rights. This is, for sure, definitely not the end of the movement, he said. This mornings act is only part of the movement.

Throughout the day police gradually squeezed the life out of the camp, pushing in from its west and east entrances and destroying the tent community as they progressed.

By 3pm they had reached Lennon Wall, the iconic multicoloured staircase mural composed of post-it notes left by supporters from around the world. An hour later, police had advanced into the camps heart an area called Umbrella Square where the protests began late September after clashes between police and protesters and where protest leaders have given nightly addresses.

Workers dismantle barricades built by pro-democracy demonstrators in the Admiralty district, Hong Kong (GETTY)

There were tense scenes as police and hundreds of protesters faced off on a side-street leading into the camp.

We are not seeing the end but the beginning, said Leung Kwok-hung, a pro-democracy lawmaker better known by the nickname Long Hair, as riot police, some carrying chainsaws, turned the once vibrant tent community into a debris-strewn wasteland. I dont feel sad. I feel there is hope in the struggle.

Two hours later, the activist was dragged away by police, shouting: "We will be back. Democracy will win.

Across the camp, tearful protesters looked on helplessly as their temporary homes were torn down and scooped up by cranes that tossed them into a fleet of open-backed lorries.

I cried so much this morning, said Kitty Woo, 44, who had been camped out since the protests began in September. Weve built a village community here and it is very sad to see it go.

It is my birthday today but it is also the saddest birthday in my life, said Benjamin Ng, a 44-year-old church worker.

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