(Minghui.org) The San Francisco Ferry Building, located at the busy junction of Embarcadero and Market Streets, is the terminal for ferries traveling across San Francisco Bay. It is also a popular tourist landmark and shopping centre. A large farmers’ market is held next to the Ferry Building every Saturday, attracting large crowds.
On the first Saturday of each month, Falun Dafa practitioners demonstrate the Dafa exercises near the Ferry Building and raise awareness of the ongoing persecution in China. Many people stop to watch and some express an interest in learning the exercises. Many sign the petition to help end the persecution after learning how the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) persecutes those in China who practice Falun Dafa.
On Saturday, February 5, 2022, the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, Dafa practitioners came to the Ferry Building once again. Accompanied by the soothing exercise music, they demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises.
Mr. James Richard, who stopped to watch the practitioners as they did the exercises, was interested in learning more about Falun Dafa. He asked many questions, including why Falun Dafa is suppressed in China.
A practitioner explained, “Falun Dafa was first taught publicly in China in 1992 and soon became popular due to its significant health benefits. According to government statistics, one hundred million people in China practiced Falun Dafa. Later on, the CCP leader at that time, Jiang Zemin, launched a persecution campaign because he was jealous of its popularity, and the suppression continues today.” James expressed concern for the plight of practitioners in China and said he wanted to learn Falun Dafa.
A practitioner offered to show him the first set of the exercises. He was delighted and afterward said that he felt surrounded by a peaceful energy field when he did them. He explained that he lives in San Jose but plans to move to San Francisco soon. He said that he will go to the Golden Gate Park practice site to do the exercises when he moves to San Francisco.
When a man in a wheelchair learned about the persecution in China he immediately signed the petition. He said, “I support you!” He was thrilled to receive a handmade paper lotus flower with the words “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good.” He said he felt very fortunate to meet practitioners, “I will learn Falun Dafa after my surgery,” he added.
Anna saw practitioners doing the exercises when she shopped at the farmers’ market. She told practitioners she’d heard about Falun Dafa when she was in Chinatown. She said she supports Falun Dafa and signed the petition to end the CCP’s brutalities.
Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why Does the CCP Persecute It?
Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries and regions worldwide.
Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and learned the five gentle exercises, have experienced uplifted health and well-being.
Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, issued an order to ban the practice.
Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organisation with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.
Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 22 years, though due to the difficulty in getting information out of China, the actual number is believed to be much higher. Many more have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.
There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply the organ transplant industry.
Views expressed in this article represent the author’s own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.