Memories of Appealing in Beijing After July 20, 1999

By Xiao Can

(Clearwisdom.net)

After July 20, 1999, when Jiang's regime announced the ban of Falun Dafa, Dafa practitioners all over the country went to Beijing to appeal, one after another. In mid-August I arrived in Beijing too, and prepared to go to appeal on Tiananmen Square. Having the feeling that I might be arrested, I left everything but a Dafa book in the home of a fellow practitioner in Beijing. We reached Tiananmen Square just after 6:00 a.m. There were many Dafa practitioners gathered there, and we distributed Teacher's articles to them. At that moment some practitioners urged me to leave. A little while later, police there started to search people's handbags. I left but was stopped by a policeman as I was crossing a nearby underground passage. He searched through my bag, found a copy of "Hong Yin", and asked me, "How long have you cultivated?" "Three years," I answered. Then I was brought to some holding cells at Qianmen, where more than 20 other practitioners and I were detained, together with some mental patients.

Two of us were taken out and beaten by policemen. For two days we were denied food. One evening we were picked up by police from our home province's liaison office in Beijing. Along the way, one female practitioner jumped from the vehicle and escaped, and the rest of us were brought to a small house near the province's liaison office in Beijing. In one room, over 20 practitioners were imprisoned, sitting on the damp, cold floor.

That night we were piled into a bus. They took away our shoes and pressed some practitioners down on the bus floor. After the bus arrived in my hometown, four of us were transferred to the local police station. By noon, there was only one police officer watching us, and the three of us female practitioners wanted to escape. At that moment the one policeman happened to be picking up a phone call, so one female practitioner opened a window and jumped out. Seeing that one of us escaped, the policeman jumped out of the window to pursue her. The policemen who came for the male practitioner also rushed out in pursuit. I told another female practitioner to go immediately. She jumped out of a window and I jumped out of another window in the corridor. I shut the window after jumping out and ran to a wall that had one side piled with cement bags. I climbed to the top of the cement bag pile and climbed over a 2-meter-high wall. Amazingly I was unhurt from jumping down from the wall.

The weather was hot, and walking made me breathless. In a small shop I bought bread and a bottle of water, and bought an old bicycle from the owner. It was 4:00 a.m.

It became darker and darker, and there were no vehicles or people along the way. Loneliness welled up in my heart; I so wanted to be together with fellow practitioners. I was exhausted and starved, so I stopped to take a rest by the roadside. I lost the bread and water on the way, and had to sleep on the ground. The ground in Northeast China in early autumn is quite cold. I was chilled all over and had to sleep on some garbage bags. I was awakened by the cold after a little while, and I got on my bicycle to continue the journey.

I was quite cold, wearing only short sleeves and a skirt. Finally, I was told the way to Beijing and headed in that direction. Later I found a shop, where I bought some trousers and a vest. At that time I had only 10 Yuan left, but there was still over 300 miles to travel.

I found a plastic cover on the way, and slept on it when I was tired. When I woke up, my wrist and buttocks were so painful -- too painful to sit down. I bore the pain and continued the journey. To validate Dafa, I would advance without fear and endure any hardship.

After riding nearly 190 miles, I hitchhiked a ride on a vehicle by making up an excuse. I felt uneasy for not telling them the truth. I apologized to them and told them that I was a Falun Gong practitioner and was being pursued by the police. To my surprise, they said: "Why didn't you tell us at the beginning? If you are Falun Gong practitioner, we are very happy to take you. It is nice to meet a kind Falun Gong practitioner." On the way I talked with them about Dafa. The second morning I returned to Beijing.

After reading Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference, and reflecting on the journey of Fa-rectification during the past few years, I have seen what I did well, and what I didn't do well in the earlier period. When comparing with the Fa, it is easy to examine our past experiences, and this helps us do well in denying the old forces in the future. We have come this far on the journey. With Teacher and the Fa, I believe we will be able to do everything with firmer and purer hearts on the path ahead.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/4/8/47783.html

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