My Bicycle Journey to Beijing to Appeal for Falun Dafa

At the end of summer in the year 2000, I biked alone to Beijing to peacefully appeal for justice for Falun Dafa. Due to my shallow understanding of the principles of Falun Gong, I was arrested and sent back to my hometown. I did not do well in maintaining righteous thoughts and received quite a few beatings. Later on I thought several times about going to Beijing again, but somehow I wasn't able to make it. It was not until late 2001 that I felt ready to go to appeal again. I did not take anything with me except a few hundred Yuan. Realising that I would be questioned if I travelled by train, and since I did not have an official ID card (my ID had been confiscated by the police), I decided to ride my old bicycle to Beijing. So, I embarked on the 200-mile (over 300 km) journey.

On the way, I suffered a lot of hardship. It was late October, and it was really chilly. I had to brave the wind and cold, with nowhere to sleep at night. However, all these things only served to strengthen my determination to uphold the principles of Falun Gong.

Since I did not have an ID to check into hotels (In China, one usually needs an official ID to check into a hotel.), I had taken a thin plastic tarp with me, planning to spend the nights outdoors. The first night of my journey, I found a sand pit. I rolled the plastic sheet into a cylinder and stuck it into the pit. Then I worked my way down into the pit. However, the plastic tarp could not retain the heat and the temperature difference inside and outside the pit caused the moisture in the air to condense, drenching my clothes. This is how I passed the first night.

The second day I kept biking. As I rode, I decided to make a banner. At a roadside store I bought some red cloth and a bucket of yellow paint. That evening I happened to come across a small hotel that did not require any ID. What was even better was that I was the only guest in a 4-person room, creating a perfect opportunity for me to make the banner. I used tree branches as a brush, and with the yellow paint I wrote the characters "Falun Dafa is Good" on the red cloth.

On the third morning I passed some slogans slandering Falun Dafa on the wall along the highway. I thought to myself, "On my way back home I must erase these slogans."

At noon, I arrived in the suburbs of Beijing. There were many checkpoints in front of the hotels and on the streets. Where could I possibly spend the night? Then I thought to ask Teacher to please help me. Soon I found a bush nearby, surrounded by some dried-up grass that was over a metre tall. I knew that this would be the place where I would sleep that night. At night, I pulled up some of the grass to use as my mattress.

At about 10:00 a.m. on the fourth day, I arrived at Tiananmen Square. I went around the Square several times and kept sending forth righteous thoughts [using upright thoughts to purify oneself and the surrounding environment]. When I looked around I saw many visitors. Noticing there were also many plainclothes policemen, I felt a bit of fear. I had never spoken out in front of so many people before, so I did not pull out my banner right away. Time passed by quickly while I hesitated, trying to decide whether or not to raise my banner. When I looked at my watch, I saw that it was nearly noon. At that time, there were many tourists on the square. I thought to myself that I shouldn't miss such a good opportunity.

I walked up to the national flagpole and without any hesitation, I pulled out my banner, raised it up high over my head, and shouted from the bottom of my heart, "Falun Dafa is Good" "Falun Dafa is Righteous" "Return Falun Dafa's Good Reputation." The banner with its bright yellow characters on the red background was very eye-catching. My shouts were so loud that they were able to frighten away all the evil. My mind was very calm, and I shouted while holding the banner high and walking around. None of the policemen noticed me. After I walked out of the Square, I put away my banner and safely returned to my bicycle.

On the fifth day of my journey, I arrived back at the hotel where I had stayed earlier. Thinking that the slogan along the highway hadn't been erased, I decided to stay one more night in the hotel. The next morning dawned foggy and grey so I went to where the slogan was and painted over the bad characters. Then I added one more character, so that the words posted now read, "Falun Gong is Good."

Looking back at my journey, I feel everything I did was exactly what I was supposed to do.

(The author dictated this story to a fellow practitioner who recorded it to share with the rest of us.)