A Man in His Sixties Walked Almost 1,600 Miles to Peacefully Appeal for a Stop to the Persecution Against Falun Gong

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In February of 2000 Gong Xueshun, a man in his sixties from Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, walked to Beijing to peacefully and lawfully appeal for a stop to the persecution against those who practise Falun Gong. He walked about 1,600 miles. His toenails fell off, his little toes were worn away, and his legs swelled up. His action shocked the world.

Gong Xueshun is retired from the Guiyang Steel Plant. He went to Beijing to appeal for a stop to the persecution twice. After he appealed for Falun Gong, his pension was reduced, and he only had 54 yuan with him. He was in a difficult financial situation, so he decided to go to Beijing on foot to appeal for a third time in February 2000.

At that time, it was snowing all over China. Mr. Gong walked along the railroad tracks from Guiyang to Beijing. When he was tired, he slept along the side of the tracks or in caves. When he was hungry, he ate the food people tossed out of the train windows or that he got through begging. He walked day and night, over hills and mountains. When his shoes were worn out, he would sew them up. His feet were in terrible shape. The toenails on his big toes fell off, and he lost half of each of his little toes. His legs also swelled up. It was very painful and difficult for him to walk. When people were celebrating the Spring Festival, he dragged his heavy legs and moved forward step by step, just to get to Beijing to tell people that Falun Dafa is good and that the persecution is wrong.

Along the way there were two guarded tunnels that no one was allowed to pass through. Old Mr. Gong had to climb over the mountains. Every time he climbed over a mountain, it would take him an entire day, but he did not stop.

One day, old Mr. Gong was begging for food in Hunan Province, but nobody was willing to give him any. He then ran into three piles of cooked noodles (about nine pounds worth), which might have been tossed from the kitchen of a train. It was enough for him to eat for some time.

On another occasion old Mr. Gong was begging at a farmer's home in Henan Province. A woman and a little girl were in the yard. He asked, "Can you give me some food?" The woman went to the kitchen. The little girl took her steel bowl and got him a bowl of silver mushroom soup. Her hands were shaking because the bowl was so hot. Gong was moved to tears.

This respectable elderly man has been illegally detained many times and was inhumanly tortured in Guiyang City's Nanming District Detention Center and Guizhou Province Zhongba Labor Education Center. During the 16th People's Congress in 2002, in order to get promotions and bonuses or to get their sentences reduced, the police and the criminals at Zhongba Labor Education Center forced Mr. Gong to stand for eighteen days. Everyday Gong was only given a small amount of food and was denied the right to sleep. The police and the criminals also poured cold water on him as a form of torture.

There are many stories like Mr. Gong's. The Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin and his regime have so far officially persecuted to death at least twelve Falun Gong practitioners in Guizhou Province. In China, over 1,000 people have been killed for sticking to their belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." Tens of thousands of practitioners have been detained, sentenced to prisons, sent to labor re-education camps, brainwashing centers, or to mental hospitals. They are probably being brutally tortured at this very moment. We appeal to all kind-hearted people to extend your help, support justice and righteousness, and resist this evil persecution together with us!

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