(Clearwisdom.net) When Austria is mentioned, many people will think of Vienna, the music capital of the Western world, where a New Year's concert is held every year. While not many people will know about Salzburg, they will remember the American film, The Sound of Music. People who have seen this film will clearly recall that beautiful city. Salzburg is the second largest city of Austria.

Group Falun Gong practice

The City of Salzburg is located at the foot of the northern Alps in the center of Austria. It is the capital of the State of Salzburg. The city was well known in ancient times in Europe for salt production. In Chinese, Salzburg means "salt fort." Because of its geographic location, Salzburg was a pivotal traffic thoroughfare for ancient European trade. The grandiose Baroque style architecture of the old city was designed by Marquis and Bishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (1559-1617) and Earl Graf von Lodron (1568-1653) of Paris.

Churches, the luxurious Bishop's Office, and beautiful Royal Park constitute the unparalleled glamour of the Old City of Salzburg. There are several famous lakes outside the city. The magnificent scenery of lakes and mountains, and Mozart, the music master who was born in Salzburg in 1756, have made Salzburg famous all over the world. As the host city of a famous summer arts festival, Salzburg is a cultural center of the world. In 1997, UNESCO designated the Old City of Salzburg as a cultural heritage site of significant value. Whether in the comfort of summer or the skiing season in winter, the city attracts tourists from all parts of the world.

In the small park that lies between Mirabel Garden and the International Convention Center of Salzburg, there is a special cultivation group. They do their exercises here on weekends, rain or shine. The peaceful music and beautiful exercises attract tourists from all over the world to stop and watch and take the leaflets in different languages. There are also many tourists from China. These people have practiced their exercises here for more than six years. They are Falun Dafa practitioners.

Falun Dafa Information Day

Uschi and Sylvia, both over in their 50s, are friends and in-laws. Their two children got to know each other because they practiced Falun Gong and eventually got married.

Uschi was born into a very wealthy entrepreneur's family in the city. Although she lived a privileged and carefree life, as she grew up, she kept looking for something more. On May 13, 1998, at a Chinese Shaolin Buddhist monks' performance held by the TV station in Salzburg, Uschi bought a qigong book with a blue cover: Zhuan Falun. She was impressed by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, which Master Li elaborates on in the book. She decided to practice Falun Gong. In the beginning, there were no other practitioners in Salzburg. She could only watch the videotape and try to learn the movements from the tape. Later, she got into contact with practitioners in other cities and was able to correct her hand gestures. After Uschi began practicing Falun Gong, her body and mind improved enormously, and she gave up smoking, a habit of many years. After having seen the changes in her, her son and their friends also began to cultivate and practice Falun Gong.

On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched an inhumane persecution on Falun Gong. The regime spread rumors slandering Falun Gong all over the world. As a native Austrian, Uschi did not know what to do. What had happened to the ancient land in the East that she loved deeply? In order to let people in general and especially people from China know about the grace of Falun Dafa, in the spring of 2000 Uschi had printed a huge poster detailing the facts of Falun Gong. She signed a long-term contract with the Vienna airport to have the poster hung in the airport lounge. After only one month, however, the Vienna airport terminated the agreement, yielding to the CCP's threat to cease official relations between the two countries. Uschi took the poster to her hometown and hung it in a busy traffic tunnel, where it has remained for six years.

Truth-clarification poster

Uschi's son Hellmut is a graduate student who studies law in a doctoral program. For many years, together with other practitioners, he has made great efforts to urge the CCP to stop persecuting Falun Gong. He once applied for a visa from the Chinese Embassy in order to go to China, but was rejected because he is a Falun Gong practitioner. This was reported by the local major newspaper, which enabled local people to find out about the CCP's brutal persecution of Falun Gong. He also wrote letters and mailed materials about Falun Gong to the President, the Premier and government departments of Austria.

Hellmut's wife Johanna is a university student at the art institute, studying fine arts and sculpture. Johanna often distributes materials about the facts of Falun Gong to Chinese tourists. She speaks to them the several Chinese phrases she learned from Chinese practitioners: "How do you do?" "For you, free." However, when the Chinese continue talking to her, she can only say, "I can speak only a little Chinese," "Falun Dafa is great!" Because many Chinese people have never seen non-Chinese practicing Falun Gong, they want to take their photo with her. Johanna also is a member of the "Coming for You" chorus in Europe. This chorus was established in order to help end the persecution of Falun Gong. To participate in their performances, she often travels by plane at her own expense. From Hong Kong to London to Athens, Greece, from New York to Paris, Johanna has traveled to many countries.

Johanna's mother, Sylvia, is a high-level manager of the First-Aid Department of the local Red Cross. She often volunteers to help clarify the truth after a busy day at work. She often puts leaflets about the facts of Falun Gong at scenic sites where Chinese tourists can see them. Recently, the practitioners came up with a good idea. They made a banner worded, "Chinese Pride. The Whole World Says, 'Falun Dafa Is Good!'" They also wear clothes with the same words written on them. While practicing the exercises, Chinese tourists passing by can see then.

With the steady spread of Falun Dafa in Salzburg, more individuals have recently started to practice. Falun Dafa has gotten support from many local people, too. A resident who often passed by the exercise site over the past few years said to the practitioners, "Your Falun Gong is the hope of Salzburg! The peace and beauty of Falun Dafa have already taken root in the minds of the world's people. The CCP's lies are leading to its own demise, because evil cannot defeat justice!" As Master Li, the founder of Falun Gong, pointed out, "Never in history has someone who persecuted those with upright beliefs ever succeeded." (from "Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)

The winter is about to pass, and spring will arrive soon.