United States: Scenes from the 7·20 Rally in Washington, DC

At around 9 a.m. on July 21, 2005, practitioners from all over the world came to the lawn on the west side of Capitol Hill. Quickly, the rally site was set up, and most practitioners then started a large-scale group practise while some others held up banners.

Group practise in front of Capitol Hill

At around 11:30am, the rally started. The theme of the rally was "Let's Jointly End the Persecution Against Falun Gong." Many renowned politicians and human rights activists came onto the stage to voice their support for practitioners.

Two professional practitioners from Taiwan meditating

At the rally site, we found two practitioners named Shi Zhengtong and Shi Ruxuan, both from Taiwan. Shi Zhengtong said that in Taiwan, there were more than 10 monks or nuns who had become Falun Dafa practitioners. She told us that the Taiwan government and many residents knew Falun Dafa very well. Upon seeing that the CCP has been using all available resources to defame Falun Gong and many Chinese people being deceived, she decided to come to the U.S. to support this event. Shi Ruxuan, who had been a Buddhist nun since early childhood, said: "Buddhist scriptures have predicted that Falun Dafa will spread today to save people, and some of those who know the scriptures well started cultivating in Falun Gong quite naturally."

At the site, Qiu Yanling helped practitioners who reenacted torture methods to do the make-up, and this is her second year doing this "job". She said that she was very sad when she did this for the first time. "I was already very sad when I saw photos of tortured practitioners in China. To do the make-up properly, I had to study the torture photos carefully and to find out the very details of the wounds. The more I studied the photos, the heavier my heart became." Qiu said.

It was extremely hot by noontime. An older practitioner, however, was very determined to continue her re-enactment. She said: "This small amount of suffering is nothing compared to the torture inflicted upon Mainland practitioners."

Six young practitioners from Atlanta

Six young practitioners from Atlanta, Li Tiepu, Li Xilong, Wan Chunke, Wang Chunzhen, Yao Jiali and Lei Meng, also joined the group practise. Li Tiepu, the big sister of the six, said that they had participated in the DC rally several times. She said that they were very proud of being Dafa practitioners.

Cai Yu, 7 months, also joined the parade

The youngest practitioner that I saw during the rally was Cai Yu of New Zealand. Though he is only 7 months old, he came to the site very early in the morning with his mother. While his mother was very busy distributing fliers, he was quietly lying in his stroller. When the parade started at noontime, his stroller was surrounded by many bags from other practitioners. He sat there quietly throughout the parade.