(Minghui.org) April 25, 1999, is a day I will never forget. Living close to Beijing, I felt fortunate to have the chance to be part of the largest peaceful protest in modern Chinese history.
The Most Peaceful Demonstration
I'm a Falun Gong practitioner. After finishing the exercises at the practice site on the evening of April 24, 1999, a practitioner volunteer assistant told us that several practitioners from Tianjin had been arrested for asking the Youth Reader magazine to withdraw a slanderous article about Falun Gong.
Other practitioners from Tianjin were planning to go to Beijing the next day to protest the injustice. I decided to join them.
On the morning of April 25, still trusting in the government, I arrived in Beijing with local practitioners. Many practitioners from Beijing and nearby cities had already arrived before us. We walked in the same direction--towards the central government compound--and joined 10,000 other practitioners for the peaceful demonstration.
All of us were calm and quiet. No one did anything violent. Most of us didn't eat or drink the entire day, so we wouldn't have to use a restroom.
We stood there all day, waiting for a response. In the evening, when we heard that the Premier had agreed to restore our freedom to practice Falun Gong, we quickly left. I noticed there wasn't any trash left on the ground.
We Saw a Big Falun in the Sky
One practitioner went home around 4 p.m. to make her night shift. Two other practitioners and I took her to the bus station. When we went back to the protest site, I saw a big Falun in the sky. It looked to be the same as the one on the cover of Zhuan Falun. I told the other two practitioners about it, and they saw it, too. We were very excited.
As we walked back, we saw more Falun on the ground, rotating very fast. The Falun disappeared as we went back to the group. I felt very encouraged.
A Stranger Treated Us like Family
The last bus had already left when the protest was over. I was with about a dozen practitioners, and we weren't sure where to stay that night.
A woman in her 50s approached us and invited us to stay at her home. It turned out she was also a practitioner and had just come back from the protest.
She let us use a room that had just been renovated for her son's wedding. We were very grateful.
Having stood for an entire day, it was such a relief to have a place to sit down and rest, even though so many people were sharing one room
Before we left the next morning, she prepared a hot breakfast for us. We were all very touched by her kindness.
