(Minghui.org) Chinese New Year is one of the major holidays among Chinese people worldwide. Many tourists from mainland China visited Taiwan over the recent New Year vacation, while visitors from other countries also made stops in Taiwan to experience traditional Chinese culture.

In Taiwan, the mainland Chinese had the rare opportunity to learn about Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) from Taiwanese practitioners at popular tourist sites. Falun Gong is persecuted by the Chinese government but it is practiced freely in Taiwan and around the world.

Local residents and tour guides have been supportive of Falun Gong and were impressed to see practitioners volunteering their time to reach out to tourists over the holiday break. “You have all been working hard,” one of them said, “Thank you and please keep it up!”

A family from Tianjin, China talked with practitioners and mentioned that they were returning to mainland China the following day. A practitioner answered their questions about Falun Dafa and cleared up some of their confusion about the practice. She explained how the communist party has defamed Falun Dafa since 1999. One of the family members nodded in agreement and later decided to quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated youth organizations.

A tourist from Canada came up and asked for more information about Falun Dafa. Having witnessed pro-communist thugs harassing practitioners in Hong Kong, he knew that practitioners are peaceful and non-violent. When a practitioner said that Falun Dafa was closely related to traditional Chinese culture, the man became very excited.“I came to Taiwan for Chinese New Year because I want to get exposed to real Chinese culture here. Seems I have made a good choice,” he said.

As they conversed further, the man learned why the communist regime suppresses the practice in China. “In the hostel where I'm staying, there are two young men in their 20s from mainland China looking for traditional culture. They have been busy searching in libraries so far. I think they should come here to learn about your group. I will let them know about you,” he added.

A young man from Russia became very interested as he examined posters with photos of practitioners meditating. He took lots of pictures and asked the practitioners how to meditate. The practitioner gave him a pamphlet with information about the practice and told him that he could follow up with other practitioners in Russia. The young man was grateful to receive the pamphlet and said that he would definitely give Falun Gong a try.