Participants, most from Beijing's well-educated business elite, were invited to float lighted candles and white roses in vases of water placed around an empty parking lot in the city's eastern business district. Many wrote poems and sentiments on a white cotton cloth stretched over a plywood backdrop.

''Freedom and justice will not be stopped. Humanity will continue to live peacefully,'' said one message written in English.

Property developer Zhang Xin said she organized the gathering partly to show that many Chinese disagree with the view of some of their compatriots that the U.S. deserved to be attacked.

''Those sort of words deeply saddened us. We want to send another message that we are all shocked and mourn for the victims,'' said Zhang, wearing a Chinese-style white silk tunic. White indicates mourning in Chinese culture.

The Chinese government has confirmed the deaths of two of its citizens aboard one of the crashed planes in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

China-U.S. relations have been roiled by the NATO bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999 and a collision between a U.S. spy plane and Chinese fighter jet in April. Egged on by criticism of Washington in the entirely state-controlled press, many Chinese are convinced the United States tries to bully China and impede its rise to economic strength and international influence.

Internet sites have been full of postings celebrating the blow to American prestige and even some official commentators have said the United States deserved no sympathy.