(Clearwisdom.net)
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| Group practice before setting out | Children learning exercises seriously |
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| Walking toward the destination | ||
August 11 2002 (Sunday) was "Marathon Day" in Sydney. Over 65,000 people attended the event. Many Falun Gong practitioners wearing yellow T-shirts with "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" imprinted also attended the Marathon walk, including practitioners over 70 years old, a one year old baby in a baby carriage and a ten-year-old.
At eight o'clock in the morning, Falun Gong practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts in Hyde Park and did exercises as a group. It was close to the starting place of the Marathon, so there were thousands of people in the streets. People were attracted by the peaceful and beautiful exercises and stopped to watch. Some western children imitated the gestures and started to learn the exercises. They were so lovely.
"Sydney Morning Sun" (the sponsor of this event), a local newspaper called "The Point", a Korean TV station and several other reporters took video shots and photos.
At 10:30AM, the Marathon walk started. Along the road, many cheerleaders and civilians chanted toward the Falun Gong team, "Yellow, well done! Yellow, well done!" and raised their thumbs to show their support and encouragement. Practitioners waved their hands to the audience. At one place, there even stood a large truth-clarifying board, and many people stopped to look at it. Some people chanted "Falun Dafa" and "Falun Dafa is good" to us. A few practitioners brought many flyers to distribute along the road. People were eager to accept truth-clarifying flyers.
Over 70 practitioners finished the 14Km walk in two and a half hours. When the Falun Gong team was approaching the finish line, the organizer spoke to the audience through the high-volume speaker system, "This is the team of Falun Dafa; they are in yellow t-shirts. Falun Dafa can improve the health of mind and body. Falun Dafa is spreading all over the world and their teaching is free ..."
