On the early morning of December 9, police and soldiers surrounded many schools and closed the city gate at Xizhimen. Petition students were enraged. They successfully broke the police enclosure lines. At around 10:30, they arrived at the Beiping branch of the KMT Military Committee in Zhongnanhai. In front of the Xinhua Gate, they sent the petition letters to He Yingqin, then head of the KMT Military. Angry students waved their arms and shouted slogans such as "Down with Japanese imperialism" and "Immediately stop the civil war", while a 6-point demand was given to the KMT government headquarter.

Representatives of He Yingqin was able to talk to the students, but they refused to let students open Xizhimen so that Tsinghua and Yenching university students can enter the city. Students then began to march en masse. The number of marching students subsequently increased to about 6,000. When the line entered Xidan and East Chang'an Avenue, some students were attacked by police and soldiers armed with wooden sticks, whips, water pumps and sabers. Hundreds were injured and more than 30 were arrested. Students from Tsinghua and Peking University who were unable to enter the city via the gates stood their ways outside the city wall in bitter cold. Some of the students wept in telling surrounding residents about atrocities the Japanese army committed in Manchuria. They blamed on the KMT government for its non-resistance policy. At the end of the day, this movement by the students forced the Hebei-Chahar Political Committee to adjourn its planned opening.