Shanghai copes with trauma

A young man places mourning couplets at Chen Yi Square in the Bund (below), site of the tragedy on New Year's Eve that claimed 36 lives. [Photo by Lai Xinxin/For China Daily]

Yu Hai, a Fudan University sociology professor, said on Friday that the stampede will not tarnish Shanghai's image.

"It was a very unusual accident at a specific time and place, and it is not related to our everyday life," he said.

The tragedy will certainly push the authorities to improve crowd management and precautionary measures at public spaces, he said.

On Thursday and Friday, the Bund continued to draw huge crowds of visitors, as police enhanced security.

Iron fences have been placed around benches on the viewing platform to discourage tourists from standing on and falling off them.

Simon Desmarais, a Canadian who was visiting Shanghai on a transit visa, said the Bund is a favorite site that no foreign tourist should miss.

"I was expecting more people to be here," said Desmarais, who was taking pictures with a friend of the Pearl Tower and other landmark buildings on the other side of the Huangpu River.

"In Canada, it's impossible to have a stampede like this," he said. "We don't have very big crowds in Canada, not too many people."

Desmarais said he thought of Shanghai as a safe city, that China is generally safe, and that the tragedy shocked him.