(Minghui.org) An eye-catching feature in Toronto’s skyline, the 553-meter-tall CN Tower located in the city center, attracts two million visitors every year. Ms. Huang Yunqin, a Falun Dafa practitioner who is 86 years old, has stood here for over 20 years to tell people about Falun Dafa and the persecution in China.
Located in Toronto’s city center, the CN Tower is one of Canada’s top ten tourist attractions.
After the coronavirus pandemic began subsiding in Canada, tourist attractions were gradually re-opened to visitors. One day, an international student from China passed by the CN Tower but declined the leaflet that Grandma Huang offered him. After touring the tower, he noticed she was still standing there. He was very surprised and said, “You are still here?” Grandma Huang smiled and said, “Yes, I wait here for you all every day.”
Every morning, 86-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner Huang Yunqin hangs a row of banners in front of the CN Tower to welcome tourists from China.
Grandma Huang told the young man, “I benefited from practicing Falun Dafa, and I hope you can benefit from it too. I hope you won’t be deceived by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s lies.” The young man accepted the information and listened to Grandma Huang. He understood why she waits for tourists from China every day. Before he left, he agreed to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
Grandma Huang said, “Since the start of the persecution of Falun Dafa in China, I’ve come here every day to clarify the facts to tourists from China and tell them about how I’ve benefitted from practicing Falun Dafa. At first, Chinese people scolded and reprimanded me, but I did not blame them because I knew they were deceived too deeply by the CCP. I thought that by waiting for them here every day, one day they would finally be willing to listen to me.”
As she spoke, she was moved to tears and said, “Why do I persist in coming here? One reason is because I gained a new lease on life through practicing Falun Dafa, and I hope that others can benefit too. The other reason is, when I heard how the CCP cruelly persecutes practitioners in China, I felt it was my responsibility to tell people and help stop the persecution.”
Every morning, Grandma Huang hangs a row of banners in front of the CN Tower to welcome the tourists from China. She said, “Tourists from China take photos of the banners when they come here. Some of them even take photos of themselves standing in front of these banners to keep as a remembrance. When I pass them the materials some whisper to me, “Thank you, Auntie. Help me to send my greetings to your Master!”
A tour bus driver often sees Grandma Huang. After learning about Falun Dafa and quitting the CCP, he tells the tourists on his bus, “Come over and take a look at these materials and listen to their stories!”
Ms. Huang was born in Hong Kong. She was weak and full of illness since childhood. “When I was a newborn, I vomited whatever I was fed,” she said. “My mother thought I wouldn’t survive.” When qigong became popular, Ms. Huang tried practicing many types of qigong, but nothing she tried improved her health.
Ms. Huang moved to Toronto in 1996 to help her daughter look after her grandchild. She said, “By that time my body was wracked with illnesses. My joints and waist ached. I had skin diseases and allergies. My suffering was unbearable.
“My face was covered with many black spots, and I had to take medications every day. The weather in Toronto is much colder than Hong Kong. I often got sick from the flu, even though I went for flu shots. The doctor said that my body did not have much immunity.”
That year, Ms. Huang first heard about Falun Dafa. “My neighbor was a Falun Dafa practitioner and she introduced the practice to me. I tried many kinds of qigong in Hong Kong but they were not effective. I thought that I might as well give Falun Dafa a try.”
“My neighbor began teaching me the exercises. After that, I joined practitioners at the nearby park every day. Gradually, my illnesses disappeared, until one day I realized I was healthy! I also attended the nine-day workshop.”
Ms. Huang said that practicing Falun Dafa not only improved her health but also changed her whole perspective about life. “After reading Zhuan Falun, I felt that my view about life changed. I understood that the most important thing in cultivation is cultivating our xinxing (character, or mind nature),” she said.
“What left the deepest impression on me was that I learned that I had created a lot of karma throughout my past lifetimes, and this karma caused me to suffer from many illnesses in this lifetime. In addition, the many types of qigong I practiced added many bad things to my body. After I began practicing Falun Dafa, these bad elements were all cleared out from my body.”
Ms. Huang and her family witnessed the changes in her after she began practicing, and they are all very supportive of her cultivation.
Some people think that at 86, Ms. Huang should enjoy life with her family, but she said that she makes good use of her time by coming out every day to talk to people and that she does not feel tired at all. “I wake up around 5 a.m. and start my day by reading the Fa with other practitioners online. Then, I go to Queen’s Park to join the group exercises. After that, I go to the CN Tower to clarify the truth,” she said.
“I do not feel tired. In fact, I never think about my age. Instead, I feel that I am growing younger and younger as I cultivate myself. Now my body is free of illnesses and I feel light. I walk as briskly as a young person.”
Grandma Huang welcomes Chinese tourists with a big smile.
When the CCP started its persecution of Falun Dafa in 1999 and Ms. Huang started talking to Chinese people at the CN Tower, they scolded her. “When this happened, I felt their behavior was unjustified,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘Fine, don’t listen. What do I care?’”
Ms. Huang also met people who ignored her or refused to accept her flyers. In the process, Ms. Huang said, “I slowly started to look for my own shortcomings. I later realized this happened because I did not have enough compassion for others. When I saw my shortcoming, I started to change my attitude.”
Afterwards, when people scolded her, Ms. Huang smiled and said, “Don’t be angry. Have I offended you?” The other party would stop scolding her, and some even shyly accepted the information she was giving out.
Ms. Huang’s hands stopped trembling after she folded paper lotus flowers bearing information about Falun Dafa.
Ms. Huang shared a miraculous story that happened to her. “Sometimes my hands trembled. A few years ago, a practitioner asked if I wanted to join them in folding paper lotus flowers. I thought I was already so busy–where would I find time to fold lotus flowers? So I declined the offer. A few days later, when I was studying Fa with the group, the practitioner in charge asked me again if I wanted to help fold lotus flowers.”
Ms. Huang thought that since so many people asked her to help, it may mean that she should help with the folding. “I accepted the invitation to join this project. Miraculously, while I folded the lotus flowers, my hands were very cooperative. They stopped shaking and I was able to fold the flowers. During the process, we also need to string some very small beads. The holes in these beads are very small, so if we do not concentrate, the string won’t pass through the beads. But I was able to string the beads.”
Ms. Huang said she has persisted in this project. To date, Ms. Huang has folded more than 10,000 lotus flower souvenirs that practitioners hand out as souveniors.