Tired and sore from sleeping on cold floors in a detention center in south China, Alan Huang and Alicia Zhao returned to their Bay Area homes Wednesday after their trip to Hong Kong to meet with fellow members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement turned into a two-week nightmare.

Their stories of 13-hour work days -- cleaning pig pens and piecing together hair brushes -- and cramped, cold cells shared by dozens of prisoners offer the first close-up glimpse into the Chinese government's aggressive campaign to prosecute members of the controversial sect.

Described by followers as a combination of yoga, meditation and traditional breathing exercises, Falun Gong has rattled Chinese officials with its ability to swiftly mobilize thousands of members. The government has called the movement the most significant political threat to national security since the 1989 student uprising at Tiananmen Square, and banned the practice of Falun Gong in China.

Since July, Chinese authorities have rounded up thousands of Falun Gong members, ransacking homes and confiscating promotional materials. Four leading members of the sect, also known as Falun Dafa, were sentenced this week to seven to 18 years in prison for their involvement.

Officials at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

Huang and Zhao said they knew the risks they faced when they traveled to their homeland.

We knew there might be a chance something would happen, but we felt it was our right to go, a weary Huang said from his Sunnyvale home, just one hour after he arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Hong Kong. Compared to the experience we had, there's others who have been treated much worse. Huang and Zhao, both Chinese citizens with U.S. residency, set out Dec. 11 to Hong Kong for a one-day experience sharing conference. There they met with 1,000 other Falun Gong members who exchanged stories of spiritual healing and daily miracles.

The pair then traveled by train to Shen-zhen, a small town on the border of Hong Kong, where they gathered for an evening of exercises with other Falun Gong followers at an apartment. Tired, they returned to their hotel rooms only to be rousted out of bed at 5 a.m. the following morning by Chinese authorities who demanded their identification papers.

They took our passports and green cards, and told us to go to their police station that afternoon to pick them up, said Huang, a software engineer and father of a 4-year-old daughter. When we got there, they asked us a lot of questions, and we weren't allowed to leave. Huang, 37, and Zhao, 29, were charged with disturbing social order and immediately sent to a detention center, where they were told they would spend the following 15 days before being allowed to return to the United States.

In near-freezing temperatures, the two slept in separate cells with dozens of prisoners. Huang shared one bed and a blanket with 12 other men. Zhao slept on the floor with 37 other women in a cell with one toilet that didn't flush. Some cellmates were fellow Falun Gong followers, including Lili Feng, a scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.

They ate rice and tofu in the morning and cabbage in the afternoon. While Huang cleaned pig pens and putrid-smelling facilities, Zhao and Feng made hair brushes.

They forced us to make 70 hair brushes a day. . . . if you didn't finish, they wouldn't let you sleep, said Zhao, a Foster City resident who works as a marketing manager for Intershop, an e-commerce Web site. It was very cold, and we were forced to take off our shoes. The trio, including Feng, were released Monday, two days earlier than expected. Their experiences reveal the danger facing U.S. Falun Gong members who travel to China, said Gail Rachlin, a spokeswoman for the group in New York.

Despite facing arrest and being stripped of their possessions, Chinese Falun Gong followers hold daily silent protests in Beijing to appeal to authorities to lift the ban that has been in effect since July. The group claims to have 10 million members worldwide.

They have such strong, ingrained beliefs, they just keep going out there, she said. We're trying to resolve this peacefully by starting a dialogue. Falun Gong has divided U.S. lawmakers, some of whom have distanced themselves from the movement. And some human rights advocates question the group's insistence that Falun Gong is not a formal organization, with no formal leader.

The movement has amassed so many followers it has posed a threat to the Communist Party, who fear any organized group they cannot control, said Frank Lu, founder of the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.

It's a very big problem for the Communist Party, Lu said. I think there's a bigger crackdown now because there's so many members. Falun Gong was founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, who lives in New York. In addition to promoting spiritual healing through daily exercises, the sect teaches frugality and abstinence from liquor and tobacco. Many followers shun modern medicine as a means to cure illness.

Huang said he began practicing Falun Gong three years ago as an escape from his hectic life as a software engineer for San Jose-based Xilinx.

It has really brought me a lot of health benefits and helped me gain a peaceful mind, he said.

Zhao said she also feels physically stronger and more relaxed since she started practicing Falun Gong. The exercises, she said, helped her get through the past two weeks.

Contact Anne Martinez at amartinez@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5445.

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