(Clearwisdom.net)

(The photo exhibition and materials desk in King George Square attracted a lot of Chinese tourists)

After the Opening Ceremony on Saturday, practitioners had a permit through the following Wednesday to use the entire King George Square in front of Brisbane City Hall. We set up marquees with information tables and banners, displayed the "Journey of Falun Dafa" photo exhibit and demonstrated the exercises in two large grassy areas. There was also permission to have an information table at the busy Queen St. Mall, where large numbers of brochures and flyers were handed out. The small gallery displaying Zhang Cuiying's Traditional Chinese Paintings was booked through Wednesday as well, giving many people the opportunity to see the beauty and artistic expression of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance reflected in these paintings. This was in stark contrast to the abuses suffered by Zhang Cuiyang while she was incarcerated in a Chinese prison for eight months.

City Hall furnished ten large partitions to display the "Journey of Falun Dafa" photos out in the Square. This photo exhibit attracted many people and encouraged them to find out more about Falun Dafa, including many groups of Mainland Chinese tourists. The days we were in King George Square, many busloads of Mainland Chinese tourists visited City Hall. Although they are often reticent to take literature or talk with practitioners, the photos attracted their attention and gave practitioners a chance to clarify the truth of the severe and unwarranted persecution in China to them. As some of the Chinese tourists spoke good English, even the Western practitioners were able to approach them, hand out literature, and clarify the truth. One could also see that many of the Mainland Chinese tourists were very surprised to see this large display of Falun Dafa activities directly in front of City Hall. How different this is to China, where any Falun Dafa activity is immediately and brutally suppressed.

As people came to watch the exercise demos or read the literature and talk with practitioners, many wanted to learn the exercises and find out more information about local practice sites. Some were taught the exercises on the spot, while others promised to come to practice sites. One person who was very interested in the practice was a healer who could see energy. He spoke with one of the practitioners and said how amazed he was by what he saw. He said that one thing that particularly intrigued him was the fact that everywhere the practitioner stepped and whatever he touched left a brilliant, glowing pattern of energy. He bought a book and promised to come to a practice site.

As Saturday had been so oppressively hot, practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts throughout the following days. It resulted that each day got progressively cooler and cloudier, helping shelter everyone from the intensity of the Queensland summer weather. This meant more people stayed in the Square for longer periods and spent more time looking at the photos and talking with practitioners. The forecast for Wednesday, the final day of activities at the Square, was for heavy rain. As the clouds built up early in the morning and become more ominous, practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts together and the cloud cover quickly broke, creating a very pleasant day. At 5pm, just as practitioners finished diligently packing up the "Journey of Falun Dafa" photos and assisting the council staff in moving the display boards back into City Hall, the heavens opened up and sheets of rain poured down.

The week's activities concluded on Friday with two events. Practitioners spent the afternoon in Chinatown demonstrating the exercises under the Chinese pagoda and handing out literature at an information table. Later in the evening, there was a walking candlelight vigil through the city which later joined a candlelight vigil in a park that bordered one of the busiest streets. This seemed a fitting way to close the week's activities by honoring all those practitioners in China who had recently given their lives to protect Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.

Posting date: 2/8/2002
Original article date: 2/6/2002
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide
Chinese version available at http://minghui.cc/mh/articles/2002/2/6/24443.html