ZHAO Zhijian (pseudonym), a 28-year-old male from a city in Northeast China, used to teach in a university. He used to be a pious Buddhist and later became a Falun Gong practitioner.

In June of 1999, although Jiang Zemin and his accomplices had not yet started the persecution, the site where Zhao Zhijian and his fellow practitioners performed the Falun Gong exercises was often under surveillance by police agents.

One day the agents told them not to hang up their banners on the existing structures, so Zhao Zhijian and other fellow practitioners found some bamboo poles from which to display their Falun Emblem and other banners.

On the first day using this new arrangement, they were holding the bamboo poles and watching other practitioners doing the exercises when suddenly they heard someone yelling, "Hey, come look! The Falun is really rotating!" Many people came over to see.

Everyone present saw it. The Falun on one banner was rotating clockwise and counter clockwise, 9 times in each direction. It was real. Another banner, which read "Fa Lun Da Fa," had four smaller Chinese characters arrayed around each of the four large Chinese characters (Fa Lun Da Fa). Each of the four large Chinese characters was rotating like a Falun together with its 4 surrounding characters. The Chinese characters on the other banner, which told about the 8 characteristics of Falun Gong, became obviously three-dimensional.

From then on, as soon as they started their daily practice, the Falun Emblem and the four Chinese characters of "Fa Lun Da Fa" together with their 16 smaller characters were all rotating. Everyone could see it.

This practice site quickly became quite a sight in the park. In just two weeks, the original 200 plus practitioners increased to about 750. There were too many newcomers for the site assistants to teach them.

On January 20, 1999, Zhao Zhijian heard that many Falun Gong Assistants had been arrested at the same time all over the country. He and his fellow practitioners went to the provincial government to appeal for the immediate release of the arrested Falun Gong Assistants.

On July 26, he alone got on the train heading south to Beijing. He was the first from that province and that city to appeal in Beijing. The local governments were scared by his bold action.

After he was transported back to his original hometown, the provincial governor and the city's party secretary personally inquired about his "illegal" activities. They told his relatives that they would execute him as a "counter-revolutionary." His mother fainted on the spot, and his wife lost over 20 pounds in 13 days.

He was the first Falun Gong practitioner to be put into the detention center. The intense feeling of loneliness was his biggest enemy. Looking at all kinds of bullying criminals around him, he decided to teach them the dignity of being a decent person.

Gradually the criminals started to call him "Teacher Zhao." They said, "Teacher Zhao, we've got so many people here, but only you are in because you want to be a good person. If you want to practice the exercises, go ahead, we will watch the guards for you."

After a bullying criminal cell head was moved out of the prison, other inmates told him, "Teacher Zhao, the chief committed murder. He must have a huge amount of karma. We dare not sleep on his spot. Could you please sleep there first and get rid of all his karma so we could sleep there?"

The staff in the detention center would not serve him any vegetables, so he had only white rice to eat. Other inmates could not stand that and offered him theirs, but he declined their kind offers. One day, before one inmate was about to be transferred out of the cell, he cried and begged, "Teacher Zhao, I am leaving tomorrow. In my honor, couldn't you just take a bite of my vegetables? Am I looked down upon by you?" Thus he took his only bite of vegetables in the detention center.

The higher authorities were especially interested in his case and sent two high level senior police agents to "interrogate" him--but they did not get anything out of him. He said to them, "You see, I am just an everyday Falun Gong practitioner, not even an assistant, and no one told me what to do. I don't know any secrets. I just wanted to go by myself. You two, please don't bother yourselves any more." The two senior officers were so moved that they were speechless for a long period of time.

Later the senior authorities sent an officer who had a college diploma to "persuade" him. After one day's persuasion, the officer suddenly asked, "So, if I cultivate, what do you think of my inborn quality?"

Another day, he was escorted to the prison guard's office. One officer was walking towards him angrily while cursing Falun Gong and getting ready to beat him. Zhao was sitting quietly, watching the officer. The officer reached a spot about one meter away from him when he felt some kind of energy blocking his forward movement. He could not even take another half step closer. He pointed his finger at Zhao and said angrily, "Did you send forth gong? I will finish cursing you even if you do that!"

Zhao smiled quietly and said, "I could not send forth gong. But I advise you not to curse anymore." The officer was murmuring, "I will still curse even if you send out gong." And at the same time he walked away silently as if not of his own free will.

Zhao was prepared to be detained for a long time, but less than 2 weeks later, he was released.

At the end of October, 1999, Jiang Zemin illegally denounced Falun Gong. Zhao decided to go again to Beijing to appeal. This time his wife went with him. Before she left, she resigned from her well-paid job and wrote a public letter stating why she had resigned, publishing it on her company's internet site. She asked her mother to look after her one and a half year-old son. She cut her handkerchief in two, half for her husband and half for herself saying that this might be a farewell forever and the piece of handkerchief could serve as a souvenir. Then she pulled out a big, red, cotton-padded overcoat to wear, saying that it was a glorious thing to appeal for Dafa, and she should be very happy to start off looking good.

After arriving in Beijing, Zhao Zhijian stayed with local practitioners for Fa discussion. His wife was arrested and nothing was known of her whereabouts.

After discussions with the Beijing practitioners, Zhao Zhijian decided not to appeal because he was needed at home to help more people. So he returned home and sponsored several big experience sharing conferences and was arrested again.

At the end of 2000, he appeared again in Beijing. He was making and passing out Falun Gong truth clarifying materials together with local practitioners. He had been forced to become homeless and had very little money. After Zhao's wife was arrested, he had to raise their children and support his parents by himself. A gentleman had met Zhao and his wife, and after he learned about Zhao Zhijian's situation, this kind man offered his own money to support their cause.

No one knows where Zhao Zhijian is now.