Events Throughout Europe during the Holiday Season

The holiday season is also the travelling season. As many Chinese people go on holiday in Europe, Falun Gong practitioners there have held various events to reach out to their fellow Chinese with the facts behind the persecution of Falun Gong. Featured in this newsletter are five recent events to raise awareness in France, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, and Russia.

France
Practitioners from Paris come to the Eiffel Tower and shopping malls every weekend, talking to the Chinese tourists.


Chinese tourists reading Falun Gong display boards

A few days ago, a lady from Sichuan, China, smiled when she saw the practitioners as soon as she got off the tour bus. She circled practitioners' booth, and then told them quietly that she had just started practicing Falun Gong a few weeks prior.

It was after she talked to a practitioner from Canada on the phone. She was touched by that practitioner's words, and wanted to know more about this ancient Chinese cultivation practice. So she found a copy of Zhuan Falun (the main book of Falun Gong).

“It is a great teaching,” she said. After finishing the entire book in one sitting, she was amazed and wondered, “Why did the Communist Party ban this?” She wanted to learn the exercises.

She said to practitioners excitedly, “I truly don't understand why the government suppresses such a good thing. Why won't they let us read the Falun Gong books, and let us judge whether it is good or bad?” Then, answering her own question, she said, “The Communist Party does not have courage. It is afraid of the truth.”

“So, it suppresses the truth, and then spread lies,” she said. “I read your materials. You guys are truly great! What are patriots? You are the real patriots.”

“I want to continue practising. If there is only one thing I trust, it is Falun Gong,” she said with tears in her eyes.

Sweden
Practitioners from Stockholm set up display boards and demonstrated exercises at the Mynttorg Plaza. They also collected signatures on a petition speaking out against the state-sanctioned organ harvesting from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Exercise demonstration

Denmark
Practitioners from Copenhagen often hold events in the downtown area. On December 17, they hung up banners and passed out flyers, calling for help to stop the persecution.


Falun Gong event in downtown Copenhagen

A tourist learns the exercises

Greece
On December 9, the day before International Human Rights Day, Greek practitioners held a protest in front of the Chinese embassy in Athens. Many Chinese people coming to the embassy for business took their materials.

On Human Rights Day, December 10, practitioners held an event at the Monastiraki train station, telling people about the organ harvesting atrocities in China. Many people signed petitions. Some of them were also interested in learning the exercises.