Bearing Witness to History: Morning Exercise Practice on May 13, 1999

By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) May 13^th, 1999, less than a month after the ten-thousand-person peaceful appeal on April 25, 1999, was the seventh anniversary of Master's public introduction of Falun Dafa, and was also Master's birthday. To celebrate the occasion, practitioners from smaller practice sites gathered together to practice on this morning.

The police department watched us very closely, more so after April 25. With rumors rampant, most practitioners felt the oppressive atmosphere. The morning practice on May 13 was a big test for all of the practitioners in China.

At five o'clock in the morning, before daybreak, practitioners began the sitting exercise. Meanwhile, police cars and police in uniform and plain-clothes appeared in the surroundings. By six o'clock when the standing exercises began, the police had encircled the practice site. A practitioner hung up banners that read "Free Lessons for Falun Dafa" and "Falun Dafa." Practitioners formed rows and columns by themselves, male on the left and female on the right. They lined up in rows, with ten rows in a column. The columns grew longer and longer, and the police had to enlarge their surrounding circles several times. When the music started to sound, the practitioners began their graceful movements in unison.

A plain-clothed policeman took pictures of the practitioners with his camera, scanning from the left to the right and from the front to the back. Passers-by were attracted to the beauty and solemnity of the scene and stopped to watch. A large crowd formed and encircled the police, who in turn, had encircled the practitioners.

The place would have been very quiet if it was not for the exercise music. It seemed that drivers were also affected by the atmosphere and had slowed their vehicles down.

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