On the afternoon of May 13, the Peking University hunger strike delegation left the school's gate, then proceeded to Beijing Normal University to join the hunger striking students from other institutions of higher education. The students shouted slogans such as "It's not turmoil, vindication now!" and "We demand equal dialog!" along the way. Residents of Beijing applauded and saw them off along the roadsides. Some were even moved to the point of tears. Traffic was blocked at one point. Around 5 o'clock, the hunger strike contingents began entering the Square. They put up more than a hundred signs and banners. Some read "Hunger strike petition, truly feeling helpless"; "On hunger strike, don't want fried democracy"; "Hunger can be tolerated, but a lack of democracy cannot." There were 20 to 30 college banners on the scene.

At 5:40pm, Wang Dan announced the start of the hunger strike and read out a Hunger Strike Declaration: "To protest the government's apathetic, indifferent attitude toward the Beijing students' class strikes; to protest the government's delay of dialog with the Beijing University Student Dialog Delegation; and to protest the government's continued branding of this democratic, patriotic student movement as 'turmoil' and ongoing distorted reports — We declare a hunger strike. Our demands are: First, we demand that the government quickly conduct substantive, concrete, equal dialog with the Beijing University Student Dialog Delegation; second, we demand that the government set the record straight about this student movement and give it a fair evaluation, affirming that this is a patriotic, democratic student movement."

After this, Wang led all the hunger-striking students in swearing an oath three times: "For the democratization of China, and for the prosperity of the motherland, I willingly go on hunger strike. I will resolutely obey the discipline of the hunger strike group. I will not give up until the goals are achieved."

References: Zhang Wanshu, "The Big Bang of History: A Complete Record of the June 4th Incident"; Wang Dan, "The Memoirs of Wang Dan — From June 4th to Exile"; Feng Congde, "A Tiananmen Journal"