(Clearwisdom.net September 30, 2003) I'm a woman from the countryside, and I attained the Fa in 1998. I have benefited a great deal spiritually from cultivation in Falun Gong, and my stubborn illnesses have also disappeared.

On July 20, 1999, the persecution of Dafa started. I went to Beijing to appeal as the law permits. I was arrested at the railway station and sent to a detention center, where I was beaten, denial the use of the bathroom, and verbally abused. Five days later, after extorting 3,500 Yuan* from my family, they sent me to the township for further persecution. They forced me to attend brainwashing classes. I was not released until they forced my family to hand in the deed for our house as collateral.

In December 2000 I went to Beijing to appeal a second time. I was again illegally arrested in Beijing and sent back to my hometown, where I was detained. While in the detention center I started a hunger strike to protest. The police force-fed me by inserting a tube into my stomach. I adhered to my belief firmly. They sentenced me to three years at the Wujiabao Forced Labor Camp in Fushun City, where I suffered even more brutal persecution. I was deprived of sleep throughout the night on the first day of my arrival. I was also forced to bend over, with my arms spread out or to squat, and this continued through the day. I started a hunger strike to protest. The next evening, when the division leader saw that I remained steadfast, he started to beat me until I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness, my mouth was bleeding badly. Even today the scars on my lips are still plainly visible.

One night in January 2001, the guard forced me to write a "guarantee statement. **" When I refused, he started to shock me with electric batons. Then he asked six or seven people who had been "transformed" to beat me, bashing my head against the floor. After the beating they asked me to stand up. I said to them, "I'm only practicing Falun Gong. Have I violated any laws of the state?" They had no reply. After a long while one said, "I know you are a good person." I went on to say, "I have regained good health after I took up Falun Gong practice. Let me use a figure of speech. Your mother gave birth to you. Can you turn around and curse your mother?" The guard went silent and eventually said, "So you are not going to write even one word?" I replied firmly, "Not even one word." After 20-odd days of a hunger strike before the Spring Festival, I was sent back home.

Around a month after the Spring Festival, they sent me back to the labor camp again for further persecution. I started another hunger strike to protest. The No.1 Team is under very tight control. Because I was firm with my belief, they sent me to the No.1 Team. The guard for the team is called Shi Qingyun, who often beat me. Forty-odd days into my hunger strike I was beaten by five or six guards. I remembered Master's words, "If a cultivator can let go of the thought of life and death under any circumstance, evil is sure to be afraid of him. If every student is able to do this, evil will of itself no longer exist." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)")

In April 2001, the persecution intensified and they took turns torturing us. One day I was taken to the No.5 Team, where more than 20 people beat me. They kept beating me for the whole morning until I passed out, and then carried me back to the No. 4 team. When I regained consciousness it was lunchtime, and they started to force-feed me.

I refused to cooperate with them, so the team leader Wu Wei started to slap me in the face. As soon as he stopped, he ordered someone to take me out to the exercise yard. Having been on a hunger strike for so long, plus the torture and beatings, I was very weak and walked very slowly. Wu Wei kicked me from behind and I swayed, almost falling to the ground. He then came up and kicked me hard, and I fell down to the ground. He continued to kick me very hard on my head and body until I lost consciousness, blood streaming from my nose. Many people were present when this was happening. Someone came over and tried to carry me inside. Wu Wei yelled that nobody was allowed to carry me inside and ordered people to drag me down to the exercise yard. When the guards saw that I was still steadfast, the next day they called out two people from each team, twelve all together, and forced me into a storeroom. There they used wooden planks from a bed to hit the back of my hands and also my palms. As a result of continuous brutal beatings, my head became misshapen and my hands badly swollen. Still I refused to be transformed.

After more than 50 days of brutal persecution I became extremely weak. For fear of being held accountable, they released me, but not before they forced my family to pay the labor camp 10,000 Yuan.

* Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.

** "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practicing Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Gong practitioners.