(Clearwisdom.net)
My name is Zhang Shulan and I live in Yushu City, Jilin Province. I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1998. I used to suffer from many types of illnesses, including rheumatism, neurosis and gynecological diseases. I took many different types of medicine every day. A medicine cabinet was attached to the wall by the head of my heated bed. However, those were not my only troubles: My husband also suffered from necrosis of the femur and was not able to work. We hardly had the money to pay for food, much less to buy medicine.
Just when we had reached the end of what we could bear, I was fortunate enough to learn Falun Dafa. All of my illnesses went away when I started to do the Falun Dafa exercises. My husband and I were very happy.
Just as we were feeling extremely fortunate that Falun Dafa had saved my life, the township police arrived at our door. It was 11:00 p.m. on March 7, 2002. They searched the house looking for Falun Dafa books and DVDs. The next morning, the police showed up again and said they needed to take me to the station to explain where I got the DVDs. However, after I got into their car, they did not drive me to the police station, but took me directly to the City Detention Center, where I was held for fifteen days. I was then transferred to the Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City. That was April 4, 2002, and I was held for one year.
My husband went to Changchun City to visit me 27 times during that year to bring me clothes, food and other daily necessities. My oldest son and my sister also came to visit me every week. Due to the shock and stress caused by my detention, my husband contracted diabetes. The year of illegal detention cost my family more than 7,800 yuan.
At 8:30 a.m., on April 8, 2005, the police searched our home and rummaged through the chests and cupboards when my husband and I were not home. They confiscated my Falun Dafa books and printed materials. When I returned, the police officers asked me whether I would continue to practice Falun Dafa. I said, "I have benefited so much from the practice. Why would I ever consider stopping?" In response, they dragged me into their car and took me to the City Detention Center where I was held for twenty days. This time, my husband figured out a way to pay someone 11,600 yuan and bailed me out. The two detentions combined cost us 19,400 yuan, all of which my husband had to borrow.
My husband and I are both in our sixties and are no longer able to work. We are trying to make a living by renting out our half Shang (a plot of land measuring fifteen mu, 15 mu being about 2.5 acres in most of Northeast China and three to five mu in Northwestern China).