I was born in 1941. I lived through the war period and was happy for the new Communist China. I was brought up by the Communist Party, so from the day I started to remember things, I have loved my country and the Communist Party. No matter in what aspect, I cannot be labeled as an anti-Party, anti-government, or anti-society criminal.

At the end of July 1995, I was diagnosed with incurable cancer and completely lost hope to live. The suffering from the disease took away my courage to live. I decided that I was going to end my life by taking some sleeping pills after fasting for two days. Just when I was struggling between life and death, I luckily encountered the book "China Falun Gong". After learning Falun Gong for four months, the 26 kinds of diseases in me all magically disappeared, including the cancer. I was completely convinced of the great power of Falun Buddha Law and the virtuous compassion of Master Li, because the book Zhuan Falun gave me my second life, and Master Li Hongzhi gave me the chance to live again.

After I finished reading Master Li's great book Zhuan Falun, I cried miserably because of the feeling of deep regret and gratitude. I cried in front of Master Li's picture: "Master, I do not deserve to be a human. You came to save people, but please ignore a filthy woman like me. You came to save human beings, but I do not even deserve to be a human being." Master Li said: "No matter what kind of person you are, no matter how many bad things you have done, as long as you can truly cultivate, I will take care of you. If you do not cultivate, I cannot do anything for you." Master Li can indeed do what he says. At that moment, I was changed to a new person. I had taken things from my work unit before (which was quite common in China), but I quietly returned them after I learned Falun Dafa. I started to be friendlier to my neighbors and colleagues. I wrote letters to make up with those who had conflict with me and gave them copies of Zhuan Falun. As Master Li said, "The Buddhas' lights illuminate all things and bring propriety and righteousness to brightness and perfection." Because of my changes, 15 members of my family became Falun Dafa cultivators. For several years, we have not had a single medical bill.

I have practiced Falun Gong for 4 years. Because I had to take care of my 87-year old mother-in-law and a small child in my family, I usually practiced the exercises at home. When I heard about the official news on the ban of Falun Gong, and I knew that the media reports were full of fabricated stories and intentional slanders, I became very sad. Falun Dafa, so precious and magnificent, was attacked to such a degree. I was crying in my eyes and bleeding in my heart. But I knew that Falun Dafa is an upright path of cultivation. It is not an idealistic doctrine, not a superstition, but a supernormal science.

I realized that I was very selfish because I had always practiced in my house just for my own benefit. But the Great Law is for the whole universe. It is the true Law that can save people. I should help everyone to know the truth of Falun Dafa and the real story of cultivators. I should help all kind-hearted people to cultivate. So on Sep. 3, I took my 3-year old granddaughter to practice the exercises outside. But the local police arrested me for "disturbing social order" just because I practiced the exercises in public. I was detained for 15 days in the NanGuanLing YaoJia Detention Center.

On Sep. 5, I told my cell leader that I wanted to practice the Falun Gong exercises and asked her to inform the guard. When I came to the office and told the guards about my request, the section chief heard me. She shouted: "Who wants to practice?"

"Me."

"You are too bold. You are not even allowed to practice outside. You want to practice here? What kind of place is this? Do you know? Who feed you meals to practice? Did Li Hongzhi feed you? F-words... He fled to America. ... You still want to practice? You don't even know how you want to die. You dare not even listen to the Party!"

"Whom else would I listen to if not the Party? I wanted to be a good member of the Party, a good citizen."

"Why do you still want to practice then?"

"Some leaders of our government do not know the truth. Our Central Party Committee does not know the facts. I am a lawful citizen of our country. I have the right to help the country to know what is real and what is fake. The changes I experienced are the truth. I am a cultivator. I will listen to my Master in cultivation."

"Alright. You listen to him, right? Go ahead and practice it here. Do you dare? Go ahead."

I thought to myself: "I am a cultivator of the upright Great Law. Why should I be afraid? Master Li told us to cultivate with honor and dignity. We ourselves should position the Great Law at the right place." So I started with "conjoining hands" of the first exercise. As soon as I started, she slapped me hard on my right face with a letter-size hard binder, and then my left face. Then she used all her force to slap me on my hands until I separated them. At the same time, she was shouting. Her voice resonated with the sound of beating: "You filthy shameless xxx. I'll let you practice. Let you practice. Let you practice. Practice. Practice. Practice." A policeman of about 50 years old also shouted as he was watching: "I will see who is harder, you or the Communist Party."

No matter how she beat and shouted, I was very calm and peaceful, with not a single complaint in my heart, because I knew she was an ordinary person while I am a cultivator. She did not cultivate and did not know how precious Falun Dafa is. But I knew that Falun Dafa gave me a second life. I was actually thankful to her because she provided the chance for my cultivation. But at the same time, I also felt sad because I was not able to protect the Master who had to bear all the dirty words because of me.

After a while, they brought over a steel frame that I had never seen before. Obviously it had not been used for many years because there was stain everywhere and even spider webs on it. It was about 20" high and 15" wide, and they chained my hands and feet on it. I learned afterwards that it was called the Di Lao (translated literally as "prison in hell") device, used for the most severe criminals. I could not walk with it, even though a policeman told me to walk in a certain way. But the chief ordered me to walk back to my own cell, which was about 200 feet away. I could only move one inch at a time. The chief was after me twice, shouting hysterically: "Faster! Why don't you move faster? Where is your Gong (cultivation energy)? Move faster!"

At some point, I could not move anymore, so I stopped and thought to seek help from the prisoners. But then I thought: "No. I should walk myself, because it is my own tribulation. I have to cultivate on my own. No one can do it for me. I have to walk." So I started to crawl inch by inch. I became happy in my heart when I thought: "The Master is waiting for me. All the Buddhas and Gods in the universe are watching me. They are expecting me to return home. They would respect me because I had such a chance here to earn my divine virtues." It took me over 40 minutes to go through the 200 feet distance from cell #1 to cell #7. At the gate of cell #7, there was a one-inch-tall hurdle that I just could not pass. Then Master Li's voice sounded in my ears: "If you want to pass, you can overcome it, unless you don't want to." I calmed down and made another effort. I passed it! I sat on the ground and cried. "Oh, my Master, you are so great." When I was walking, they ordered two prisoners to watch me, and they were all moved to tears. When I got back to my cell, all the fellow practitioners cried. I knew it was a manifestation of the power of the Great Law and the great virtues of the Master.

I remembered that the Master said that every word and move of ours should represent the Great Law and the cultivators. So I endured the Di Lao device like this for two days and nights. I once asked them to take it off me for a toilet break, but I was refused. I only asked once, not ever again, because I thought that it was not easy for the guards to operate such a clumsy thing either. They would have to unlock it, put it back on, and lock it. So I endured the sufferings quietly, and did not use the toilet for two days and nights.

I had the Di Lao device on me until Sep. 7 at about 7 PM. At that time, the chief started to pressure other prisoners (prostitutes) that if anyone in the cell got handcuffed again, all of them would not be allowed to see their relatives and their jail term would be increased. So some of them started to curse me. About ten of them kneed down on the floor to ask me not to practice again. Seeing their sufferings, I unwillingly agreed not to practice in the cell again. That was how the Di Lao device was taken off me.

After a long time, practitioners in the detention center all missed the exercises. So on Sep. 9, we decided to continue the practice. In order not to disturb the lives of other prisoners and the guards, we started the practice after 11 PM when people fell asleep. Less than half an hour later, a guard on duty discovered us and screamed. At the beginning, the chief ordered other prisoners to put us down. But we kept on standing up again. The chief shouted "F-words... You shameless and filthy xxx. Practice. Still practice. Get out. Get out quick." I heard sounds of beating and shouting in other cells. Soon I was dragged out, and put on the Di Lao device again, with three other practitioners. Other practitioners were handcuffed on the window rails in the hallway. Around 11 PM on Sep. 9 there was 13 people locked in the hallway. The number increased to 26 at 5 AM on Sep. 10, and 36 at 2 PM.

A practitioner was asleep when we practiced. She was pulled out of her bed, pushed to the hallway and handcuffed there too. She told the police: "They are locked because they practiced. But I did not practice here. Why do you lock me too?" The guards paid no attention to her.

We had to endure numerous mosquito bytes and ask other practitioners who were not locked up to take stool and urine with buckets for us. Some practitioners were later transferred to criminal cells upstairs.

A practitioner on the Di Lao device happened to have her menstrual period. The blood stained her pants and wetted the floor. Many guards saw it, but did not even allow her to change. Instead, she was told to exercise forbearance.

An elderly practitioner of age 62 was too tired after standing many hours and started to move her legs. A prisoner saw it and kicked her three times, shouting: "Stand well. How did you practice Falun Gong? Where is your cultivation power?"

A practitioner asked to use the toilet. The chief said: "Aren't you able to endure? Just endure." The practitioner asked again later, and the chief said: "Didn't Li Hongzhi asked you to endure? Go ahead to endure. Where is your Gong?" So the practitioner was forced to have her stool in her pants.

Another practitioner could not endure any longer and said: "I will not practice. Please open my handcuff." The chief pointed to her noise and shouted: "You practice when you want to, and quit when you don't want to? Do you have the right to decide? Keep it on." She just walked away.

At about 6 PM on Sep. 10, practitioners started to recite "Lunyu (On Buddha Law)" from Master Li's book. Five or six guards started to beat the group of about 30 of us, until they were too tired to beat. Some ordinary prisoners wanted to show their cooperation with the police to shorten their jail terms, and also started to beat us. They shouted as they were beating: "Let you recite. Let you recite." The guards ordered: "Slap them on the face, on the mouth. Slap them hard and make them swollen so they cannot speak." Practitioners kept on reciting until finishing the article.

One of the practitioners was quite load when she recited. So they got a sticky tape to seal her mouth. She could still speak, so they put on another layer. Then another layer, another layer, until she could no longer make any sound.

Since Sep. 9, the chief ordered not to give us regular meals of bread and porridge. She said: "They are not humans. They are dogs. Not even as good as dogs. Don't give them any food." So we were treated specially with corn bread and salted vegetables. On Sep. 10, someone gave me some rice porridge with two pieces of pickles in it. The chief discovered and started to shout: "Who let you give them vegetables? Are they human beings?" After a roar of temper, she left. Actually we were not served with pickles. I smiled and said: "This is good. It is a chance that Master Li wants us to give up attachment of fighting and become extraordinary persons.

We were locked on windows until the evening of Sep. 10. Then we were handcuffed as groups of two, sitting back-to-back, not allowed to move or talk. Most of us did not know it was the kind of self-tightening handcuffs and moved somewhat while falling asleep. The handcuffs got tighter and tighter, and cut into the skins of some practitioners. One of us was under so much pain that sweat wet all her clothes. She screamed because of the pain. Other practitioners encouraged her: "The Master has endured so much for us. Can't we put up with this little suffering? The Great Law is with us. The Master is with us. What are we afraid of?" A girl was only 16. She started to cry. Another practitioner comforted her: "The Master told us to endure with no hatred. Endure without any grievance is the forbearance of a cultivator. Can you do it?" She stopped crying.

We were freed from the handcuffs at about 9 PM on Sep. 11. There were big and bright blisters all over our wrist. The hands of some practitioners were swollen like big bread. Because of the stains on the foot-cuffs, many of us had brown and purple scars on our ankles.

The person who unlocked us was a man. Because many of the handcuffs cut into our skins, it was not easy for him to take them off. He was sweating all over. He loosed his belt and sighed after a deep breath: "Oh, I think I should also take the path of cultivation." He asked if we would continue to practice, we all answered loudly with "YES". After we were unlocked, we were allowed to use the toilet for the first time. Practitioners endured the sufferings quietly, because we remembered the words of the Master: "A virtuous person always keeps the heart of compassion. With no discontent or hatred, he takes hardship as joy." "To bear without any hatred or grievances at all is the forbearance of a cultivator."

Once a policeman looked at my hands and feet and asked: "What happened?" I smiled and answered: "It is caused by this (the Di Lao device)." He said: "Look at yourself. Your skins are broken." He told me to say something "good" and he would take the Di Lao device off me. I told him: "This is the power of the Great Law. If it were not for the greatness and preciousness of the Great Law, I could not have endured this kind of torture even for no matter how much money you give me." "Why do I want to endure? For the past four years, the Master has given me so much, and sacrificed for me so much. I was dying with cancer. It was Master Li who gave me a second life for today. I am ready to protect the Master, to protect, promote, and perfect the Great Law, with my life. For my Master is the greatest. The power of the Great Law is infinite. I have absolutely no discontent."

During the days inside the detention center, sound of beating and scolding was continuous. There were newly detained practitioners everyday.

When I saw that the ordinary prisoners were ordered to work so hard to beat up practitioners, and the guards and police were so tired, I was very sad. Human beings, their lives are so miserably, so worthless, so tiring, and so difficult, yet they cannot be awakened from their deep delusion. This experience strengthened my confidence in the Great Law. I am more respectful and grateful to the Master. I am more determined to put down all human attachments.

I once asked the police: "I am already here for four days, but I have not seen the arrest permit yet. I still do not know what crime I have committed." The chief shouted at me: "What kind of people are you? Are you qualified to see the permit?" I saw the permit at home later after I was detained for 15 days.

Now many places around my ankle start to suppurate. Pus comes out continuously. It hurts like being poked with needles.

ZHANG, Chun-qing: Picture was taken seven days after she got out of hospital.