October 1 was an overcast day, and policemen and police vehicles were dense around Tiananmen Square. Shortly after the flag hoisting ceremony, tens of thousands of tourists poured into the Square.

At about 8:40am, police found the first group of Dafa practitioners and pulled them into a police car. Some practitioners then raised a banner reading, "Falun Dafa is good." Uniformed police and plainclothes agents ran up, kicked and pummeled the practitioners, and tore up the banner. To the south of the National Flag, another 4 or 5 banners were held high. Dozens of practitioner surrounded the banners and used their bodies to shield the banners from policemen's fierce kicking and striking. An elderly woman was beaten to the ground. Police dragged her by her clothes, hands, and feet to a police car. A young girl was slapped on her head and grabbed by the hair. After a male practitioner was knocked over by a uniformed policeman, several plainclothes agents went up and kicked his head and body. Despite the beating, he still tightly held the banner, repeatedly chanting, "Falun Dafa is good," "Falun Dafa is righteous Fa."

When two practitioners unfurled a bright red Falun flag above their heads, several other practitioners went up to shield them from the plainclothes agents, and shouted, "Protect the Fa." Practitioners sacrificed their blood and flesh to make the banners visible. A female practitioner shouted, "Dafa practitioners, let's go to protect Dafa." Then several hundred practitioners ran up to protect the banner. The sudden appearance of so many practitioners obviously stunned the policemen. In addition, some practitioners that had been put in the police vehicles got off the vehicles, and some that had been beaten down to the ground got up to continue protecting the banners.

The violence and the brutality of the uniformed and plainclothes police stunned tens of thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists. Someone shouted angrily, "Why do you beat them? Stop the beating!" A young man raised his camera and wanted to take a picture. Plainclothes agents came to him immediately and asked, "What are you photographing?" The young man said, "Why can't I take a picture? It is too bad for you beat them like that. Why do you beat them so hard?" Plainclothes agents asked, "Are you also a Falun Gong practitioner?" The guy answered, "I am looking for my family members." A few tourists seemed to have believed in the vicious lies (from the Chinese media) and badmouthed Dafa practitioners.

Shouting, crying and reproach of the police could be heard everywhere. Some practitioners passed out leaflets. Police vehicles were frequently driven into the Square to take away Dafa practitioners. Practitioners leaned out the windows of the police vans and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good" or held their hands together (heshi). Some tourists waved their hands at them. Police hit the practitioners back into the vans. Blood ran out from their noses and mouths. One practitioner's head was clutched between the bus doors, making it hard for him to breathe. A well-mannered young man was kicked in the chest several times and lost consciousness on the spot. No matter if they were young kids or seniors in their 70's or 80's, the police's abuse did not miss anyone.

At 9:10am, some military police were called into the Square. They began to set up an emergency line, which was then extended further. From 9:40am, the Square was cleared and closed to the public, and remained so for almost one hour. Street-cleaning trucks cleared everything on the ground quickly and washed the Square.

All the arrested practitioners were rounded together along the sidewalks of Qianmen Street at the entrance of Yongan Shopping center. It was estimated that over 1,000 practitioners were detained before 11am.

One practitioner on a police vehicle shouted, "True practitioners step forward. Otherwise, you will regret forever."

At noon, it started raining. It was the tears from heaven shed for the lost beings.

Practitioners in Beijing

October 1, 2000

Before the flag-hoisting ceremony, some practitioners were already on the Tiananmen Square to make sure they would not be late and be able to enter the Square. Practitioners started showing up at 8am. Plainclothes police were everywhere. It was said that there were 6 plainclothes agents for every 10 people there. They beat practitioners extremely hard. According to practitioners on the spot, the agents were holding one-foot long rubber rods. One end of the rod was a metal ball. If hit on the head, a person would surely be struck to death. When practitioners were packed in vans, they still chanted "Falun Dafa is good" and passed leaflets out the windows. Plainclothes agents kept frantically grabbing the leaflets from the crowds. There were also many foreign reporters in the Square.

It was not until 9:30am that the curfew was dismissed. However, many practitioners could not come even though they wanted to. The entrances to the subway near the Square were all blocked. No one was permitted to get on or get off the trains. Many practitioners could not come to the Square due to heavy traffic. Some could not go out because they were under their family's close watch.

At 8:10am on October 1, several practitioners held up a banner on the northern side of the National Flag.

Uniformed and plainclothes police began to seize their banner. Still, the practitioners held onto the banner tightly. Police struck their heads and beat their hands. Practitioners around there shouted: "Police are beating people. Stop the beating." Then hundreds of practitioners nearby stepped forward and chanted, "Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is righteous Fa. Expose Jiang Zemin's lies." The several years of cultivation gave them the courage and determination to hold up the banners on such a critical occasion. Hearing their chanting and looking at the harsh beatings that followed, some tourists burst into tears. As more and more practitioners stepped forward, the compassion from this spectacular scene became so magnificent that no human words could describe. At 8:22am, military police surrounded all the practitioners, forming a big circle and pushing the tourists away. At the same time, uniformed and plainclothes police were beating the practitioners inside the circle. At 8:50am, a practitioner passed out hundreds of copies of Falun Dafa materials to tourists. Some tourists picked up flyers despite the police's intimidation. After a while, all the tourists were cleared out of the Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square was put under a curfew. Only practitioners, police and police vehicles remained on the Square. Some practitioners broke through the surrounding police and ran into the Square. Several policemen chased after them.

Police began to pack Dafa practitioners in buses and drove them away. Practitioners in buses waved their hands to the tourists and chanted, "Falun Dafa is good." One practitioner opened a window and held up a small banner. Before 9:22am, all Dafa practitioners were taken away. Tiananmen Square was then reopened to the public. It then started drizzling. It seemed that the heaven was moved by the Dafa practitioners. After that, Dafa practitioners still kept clarifying the truth and validating Dafa. The three pictures were taken at about 10:25am. At 10:30am, a foreign reporter went into the Square with a video camera. He brought with him a reference letter saying: "3 reporters Chang Jing, etc. from the French Television Station..." When he happened to photograph a policeman beating the practitioners, the policemen immediately came to intervene. At 11:50am, when a foreign tourist group of about 20 to 30 people visited the Square, the guide pointed to some practitioners being arrested and gave them an introduction of Falun Gong. Shortly, a policeman stopped his introduction and warned him not to "damage the country's image." However, it is Jiang Zemin who is damaging China's image. The police are bringing more damage to the country's image as they help Jiang Zemin to cover up the truth behind the crackdown.

From 8am to 12am, more than 1000 practitioners in 7 buses (50 persons per bus) and 50 vans (15 persons per van) were detained at the Tiananmen Police Station.

October 1, 2000

Falun Gong practitioner appealed in Tiananmen Square on National Day (Part I)

Several thousand Falun Gong practitioners from all over the country with their compassionate hearts peacefully appealed on Tiananmen Square to clarify the truth of Falun Gong and call for a peaceful resolution to the Falun Gong issue. The following was what I saw.

At about 8am in the morning, some practitioners arrived in Tiananmen Square. At that time the Square was already closed to the public and no tourists were allowed in. These practitioners had to stand beside the Jinshui Bridge, just north of the Square. Police prohibited tourists from taking pictures in the direction of the Square. Then police vehicles drove into the Square and left after they were packed with practitioners who came earlier in the morning. Three big street-cleaning trucks were seen driving out of the Square. The practitioners found that the ground was wet after they entered the Square. Obviously something had happened there, and the street-cleaning trucks were used to eliminate evidence. Once they identify a practitioner, a group of plainclothes agents (about 50 or 60 people) would rush there. Also, uniformed policemen would run out of the underground walkways surrounding the Square to provide assistance.

At about 9:40am, some practitioners zigzagged into the Square. They saw uniformed and plainclothes police arresting practitioners sporadically. Some police vans drove away with only 3 to 4 practitioners. Most practitioners were arrested because they chanted, "Falun Dafa is good." A female practitioner did not want to get in the police van, but police pulled her in. A lot of tourists watched the scene. A practitioner told the spectators besides a police vehicle that people caught in the buses were all Falun Gong practitioners; they wanted to cultivate "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" but the government did not permit it. Policemen rushed to him and wrestled him into the police vehicle. In the police vehicles, there were white-haired old ladies and young men. They opened windows and chanted to the surrounding spectators: "Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is righteous Fa." In response to this, plainclothes agent incited 5 to 6 rogue-looking people to shout "Down with Falun Gong." In contrast, the practitioners were all in good mood with smiles on their faces.

Shortly after the buses went away, a couple of practitioners chanted, "Falun Dafa is good." Then plainclothes agents rushed to them, pulled them into a waiting police van and put the curtains down. A spectator murmured, "They will beat them." From the bus, noise of beatings could be heard.

There were some shoes left on the ground after the police vehicles drove away.

At about 10:30am, the Square was put on curfew again. No one was allowed to enter. Some policemen lied to the tourists, "There are too many people in the Square. This is an exit only. You can enter in some other place." Actually, police guarded every entrance to the Square. Only a few policemen directly told tourists that the Square was on a curfew.

Practitioners in buses were all chanting verses of "Hongyin" or "Falun Dafa is good" when they were taken away from the Square. All spectators along the road could hear them clearly. One practitioner on the ground was arrested because he held his hands together (heshi) to practitioners when the buses passed by.

News from the Square in the afternoon:

About 3:10pm, more than 30 practitioners in yellow shirts reading "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" held up a big banner and passed out a lot of flyers. All of them were detained. This picture was taken by a foreign journalist. After they were subdued, some other practitioners unfurled Dafa banners. Some practitioners wearing white shirts reading "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" ran for about 20 meters in the Square. They also were detained, making the number of detained practitioners on the spot to over 50.

Police cars, policemen and plainclothes agents were densely located everywhere in the Square. During the period of arresting practitioners, cellular phones of practitioners could not receive any signals. Yet, uniformed policemen contacted with plainclothes agents freely with radios. It seemed that they were well prepared. Perhaps they made detailed plans to prevent their evil brutalities from being unveiled.

There were also a lot of practitioners from all over the country in the Square, but they were all scattered. We hope practitioners could clarify the truth and validate Dafa with wisdom. The intention of us stepping forward is to validate Dafa, not to be easily arrested or persecuted by evil.

October 1, 2000

A report from the Tiananmen Square on October 1

Today, a lot of practitioners from Beijing and other places peacefully appealed in Tiananmen Square. Most of the practitioners were detained by police in city buses and vans. According to witnesses, about 2,000 practitioners were detained.

At about 6am in the morning, police cleared out the Square. There were relatively few practitioners at that time. About a dozen police minivans packed with practitioners drove away.

From about 8am, more and more practitioners showed up. They held up banners or chanted "Falun Dafa is good." A few practitioners passed out some Dafa materials. Once, a practitioner hollered: "Falun Dafa is good," and 7 to 8 people joined him. They could be heard even outside the Square. The surrounding tourists looked at them silently. A minute later, police began to detain these practitioners.

At around 9:30am, police began to clear all the people out of the Square and shouted, "Are there any Falun Gong practitioners?" Then, some practitioners were caught and put into the police buses. In the face of the evils, practitioners persisted on not getting into the buses. Some practitioners tightly held the metal chains around the National Flag, but they were kicked, struck, and dragged into the buses. Some practitioners clarified the truth to the surrounding people. After police forced the practitioners onto the buses, they continued to beat up the practitioners.

During this period, several city buses and a lot of police vans drove away from the Square, full of detained practitioners.

Once a tourist took a picture when the police were beating up practitioners. The police saw that, clutched the person's neck, and threw his camera to ground. The person cursed them. They then knew they caught a wrong person.

At about 10am, tourists came back in limited numbers. There were still practitioners being caught. It was said that the arrests continued until 9pm.

The media said there were about 200,000 people waiting at dawn in the Square. It was also said one-fourth of them were police (Policemen in black suit, military police in green, and a large number of plainclothes agents).

Dafa practitioners in Mainland China

October 1, 2000