No more New Year's eve celebrations after Shanghai stampede on Dec 31 2014

[Hound]

As Hong Kong parties in a blaze of fireworks, New Year’s Eve celebrations muted across China amid security fears

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 31 December, 2015, 11:39pm
UPDATED : Friday, 01 January, 2016, 12:47am

Laura Zhou
[email protected]

Fireworks ring in the new year across Victoria Harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: SCMP

There was a muted feel to New Year celebrations in many mainland cities, as the nation reflected on a year with its share of tragedies, and authorities took a cautious approach amid rising security concerns.

At venues across the country, events were cancelled, or security tightened, though official celebrations went ahead in Beijing.

Hongkongers party is Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: SCMP

The central government would continue to support One Country, Two Systems and the prosperity of Hong Kong, President Xi Jinping told the New Year tea gathering of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

In a separate, televised, address, he said China would continue to build diplomatic relations and implement reform.

He referred to several disasters that took place in 2015, including the explosions at a Tianjin warehouse in August, the Shenzhen landslide in December, and numerous terrorist incidents across the country, pledging the government would ensure public safety and protect the assets of Chinese people.

Armed police in Sanlitun, Beijing, on New Year’s Eve. Photo: SCMP

About 1,000 guests attended the official New Year’s Eve celebration near Beijing’s Forbidden City, while the iconic Bird’s Nest staged a gala.

But a countdown event at the China Millennium Monument in the Beijing World Art Museum was called off because it failed to obtain approval from the city’s public security authority, the Legal Evening News reported.

The Place, a shopping mall featuring a giant LED screen on its roof in Beijing’s central business district, said there would be no festive activities on New Year’s Eve and all shops would close at 10pm as usual.

Such a low-key approach was disappointing for Nancy, a tourist travelling with her family from Namibia. “We were expecting a festive atmosphere in Beijing where people would join together to count down like other countries in the world,” she said. “But as it seems unlikely to happen, we may have to go back to our hotel earlier than planned.”

Armed police patrolled the streets in Sanlitun, a popular bar and shopping area, where security was stepped up after warnings by five foreign embassies – the US, British, French, Canadian and Australian – of threats against Westerners on Christmas Eve.

A vendor in Sanlitun said the mall would be closed as usual. “A huge crowd is now a big concern to safety after the Shanghai stampede last year, especially in popular sites as Sanlitun,” she said. “We don’t have an option.”

In Shanghai, police beefed up security in the city’s highest-profile sites as local authorities scrapped all but one of the traditional major celebrations following the stampede on The Bund that killed 36 people.

Public security officers and armed police, including SWAT teams and other special forces, were sent to both The Bund and the entertainment district of Xintiandi, where Shanghai’s lone major celebration took place, in a park, limited to 4,800 participants.

Armed police patrol the streets of Sanlitun, Beijing, on New Year’s Eve, amid heightened security. Photo: SCMP

Roads and subway stations that lead to The Bund were temporarily closed.

Officials said no commemoration of the stampede tragedy was planned and no New Year events would be held on The Bund.

In Shenzhen, celebrations were low profile in the aftermath of the massive landslide that has left dozens of people still missing.

In Hong Kong, Times Square scrapped its countdown for the second time in two years. Before last year’s cancellation the mall had celebrated by dropping a ball from a 22-metre LED tower at midnight every year since 1993.

Additional reporting by Jessie Lau

 

[Hound]

New Year’s Eve: for some in Shanghai, an anniversary too much to bear

One year on from a deadly stampede on Shanghai’s Bund, many relatives of the victims are trying to avoid reliving the trauma by treating the anniversary as any other day.

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 31 December, 2015, 11:27pm
UPDATED : Friday, 01 January, 2016, 1:06am

Alice Yan

Mei Hechun, second from right, and his sister Mei JIng (in pink coat) with their friends. Photo: SCMP

One year on from a deadly stampede on Shanghai’s Bund, many relatives of the victims are trying to avoid reliving the trauma by treating the anniversary as any other day.

“No, we won’t have commemorative activities on the one-year anniversary day,” said Mei Jing, whose 19-year-old brother Mei Hechun died in the stampede.

Tens of thousands of people had been gathered in the Bund area to celebrate New Year’s Eve last year when the crush began. The crowd were expecting to see a light show, but it had been cancelled and the decision had not been widely relayed to the public.

A stampede broke out shortly after 11.30pm on stairs linking the terrace with Chen Yi Square below. Thirty-six people, most of whom were in their 20s, were killed, among them Mei Hechun.

The loss of their only son was too much for Mei’s parents to bear.

Her father was so overwhelmed with grief that he moved out of their house in a poverty-stricken village in Henan. Remaining in the same place, with the same neighbours, would have served as a constant reminder of his son, Mei Jing said.

“We never mention my brother’s name since we don’t want my parents to sadden,” she said. “But my father was often murmuring that he felt guilty about my brother. He said he should not have been critical of my brother by scolding and beating him.”

The feeling of destruction remained with the family and would last forever, Mei said.

Mei Hechun, one of the victims of the Shanghai stampede. Photo: SCMP

“My father often sighed there were few days he could live,” she said.

Shanghai authorities have admitted that the tragedy was due to their miscalculation of the size of the crowd and a shortage of police forces at the site. Some officials of Huangpu District, where the Bund is located, were removed from their posts as punishment.

Li Qi, whose cousin Li Xiang, 25, died in the stampede said his relatives dared not mention the young man’s name and had even hidden all of his pictures.

“The accident is a huge blow to his parents, who are poor peasants in Fujian,” Li Qi said. “It’s difficult for them to have raised my cousin and to have supported him through university [and to see this happen]. He started to work several years ago and it was supposed to be a time for his parents to relax, but suddenly he died.”

He said their health deteriorated this year. Both the father, 51, sickened by long-term rheumatism, and the mother, 50, who has hip problems, are visiting hospitals more frequently than last year.

The parents of another victim, Wu Cuixia, had lost all hope and their home was now just an empty shell, said her uncle, Wu Jiaxun.

Wu Cuixia’s father had had two surgeries and several rounds of chemotherapy this year to treat a stomach condition and now weighed less than 45kg, said the uncle.

Her mother’s mental illness had resurfaced after lying dormant for many years, he added.

The Shanghai government gave 800,000 yuan (HK$955,000)to the families of each of the victims. Most families said they would not pursue the authorities for more.

For Mei Jing, life has changed in another way. Whenever she witnesses an accident she does her best to offer help.

“I often think that in the stampede, if someone had helped my brother, by taking him out or doing something else, he would not have died,” she said. “So rather than being unsympathetic, I must offer my help whenever necessary.”

She cannot help but miss her brother.

“I am four years older than him. Among the five children in my family, my brother was the closet to me.”

 

[Lubricant_ky]

This is good they got excuse to ban stupid Western New Year celebration. They will never ban Chinese New Year@!

 

[Leongsam]

It's not Chinese new year so none of those chinks should be celebrating in the first place.