Journalists Record the Amsterdam to Brussels Stage of the Global RescueWalk

We arrived in Utrecht, Holland where two men pulled over in their car. One of the men approached me and said something in Dutch. I replied "I only speak English". He then said something else, but I only understood "..who are you and what are you doing". I explained a little, who we were, what we were doing and why we were doing it. He was a bit surprised when we said we were walking from Amsterdam to Brussels. Later, I found out that he was a reporter. He took down many details and the other person in the car, a reporter, took several pictures of us. Again, we gave him a lot of information, our letter to the mayor, contact information and an information CD. It was obvious that this was arranged.

Later that day, another journalist met us. We decided to take a break and have some hot food. While we were waiting, a woman came up to us. She was a reporter for two
different newspapers. She took photographs for both newspapers and spent a lot of time interviewing us.

When we reached The Hague, Holland, a man from an internet newspaper interviewed us. In Rotterdam, we participated in group activities and another journalist came and did a story on our walk. It appeared in the Rotterdam Daily newspaper. These activities were a big success. We handed out many flyers, and I noticed that the practitioners talked to people very often. We also shared experiences with practitioners in Rotterdam.

We handed in a letter to the mayor in Rotterdam, the secretary accepted the letter and offered us support. We took many pictures in the mayor's office building. We also
took the time to tell the truth to other employees in the city hall.

We heard that there was a Chinese newspaper in Rotterdam, and wanted to visit them and clarify the truth. Upon arriving there, we found out that they were not a Chinese newspaper. We still went in, and one of the practitioners talked about Falun Gong.

In Rotterdam we met up with the another walker. From The Hague to Rotterdam was probably the shortest distance we had to walk between 2 cities. However, after 6 or 7 hours, we had only walked 9km (approx.) in the direction of Rotterdam. We had mainly walked in a circle. The reason was clear later on. Around 6 o'clock in the morning, 3 students ran after us. They asked us many questions and we each clarified the truth to them. One of them said "I respect you, you have something to believe in, I don't believe in anything". I could see that they were touched by our determination.

Later we contacted a local radio station and they agreed to say something about our walk on the news the next day.

By this time, we had become used to helping each other with almost everything. For example, sometimes we would put on another person’s backpack. Also, when we handed
out flyers, one of us would walk a little ahead so that people could see our banners. When they turned to look, they would get a flyer. People nearly always accepted our flyers.

While walking, we decided to walk on the highway, because it was the most direct route. We didn't know that this was illegal. A police car found us very quickly. They asked us
what we were doing, so we told them about the persecution. They told us that normally we would be fined 120 Guilders each. But they waived the fine, saying this was their
"donation" to our cause.

We met a man near Antwerp who was interested in learning Falun Gong. We talked to him a lot about the practice. The next day we heard that he had phoned a local contact
person about classes. This was another boost for us.

Just after this, we arrived in a district called Merkesen. The atmosphere was gloomy,the people didn't take much notice of our banners, and very few people accepted our
flyers. I checked myself, and then began to send forth righteous thoughts [maintaining pure and true thoughts]. I felt the atmosphere change, and noticed more people were taking flyers.

When we were in Utrecht, we needed directions many times. One of the practitioners took every opportunity to tell the people she met about the persecution of Falun Gong and her family members.

Something that stood out for me was that one of the practitioner’s left leg was sore for most of the day. She limped while she walked, and I could see that it was painful for her. But, she continued to endure the pain. I also noticed blisters on the soles of her feet.

In Utrecht, we stumbled across a photographer. He took photographs of our banner
"STOP KILLING innocent Falun Gong
practitioners".

Many people gave us the thumbs up, drivers sounded their horns or some others simply nodded with respect and agreement. With this, we found the energy to continue.

Reported by one of the Walkers