GREENSBORO -- His mission was a dangerous one. He had to keep it a secret. He didn't breathe a word of his trip to China to anyone, not his parents or his girlfriend.
Andrew Parker, 22, a senior at UNCG, was hoping to go to China for a peaceful protest against the Chinese government to try to persuade it to lift its ban on the Falun Gong, an ancient practice loosely based on traditional Chinese religions and martial arts.
"Falun Gong teaches truth, compassion and knowledge," he said. "It teaches to always consider others and value virtue."
He and 32 other Americans went to Beijing to protest the ban. They assembled at Tiananmen Square on Thursday but were immediately arrested. After being detained overnight, they were put on flights out of China.
Five North Carolinians, including Parker, were put on an airplane that landed in Detroit about midday Friday. Parker flew into Greensboro about 5 p.m. that evening.
In the mid-1990s, Falun Gong drew tens of millions of followers, but China banned it in July 1999, saying it was a threat to communist rule and social order.
Thousands of adherents have been arrested since then. Falun Gong activists claim more than 360 practitioners have died of police torture.
That report of police torture is what prompted Parker to get on a plane and go to China.
"Human life is so precious," he said. "Because we are in a free country, we are responsible to help out people in less fortunate situations."
Parker became a Falun Gong practitioner in summer 2000. Despite what some people believe, Parker said, Falun Gong is not a religion.
"It is not a religion because there is no worship, no organization, no exchange of money, no tithing," he said. "It is just individuals who want to practice truth, tolerance and compassion."
About 30 Falun Gong practitioners meet on weekends in the Triangle to practice mind and body exercises, said Jeff Chen, a Falun Gong member from Raleigh. Chen estimates the number of adherents in the region at several times that number.
At 2 p.m. Thursday, the demonstrators tried to open their banners and shout slogans. They were stopped by police as crowds gathered on Tiananmen Square to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
"The minute we Westerners tried to unfurl banners, police were all over us," Parker said. "I saw ladies being dragged by their hair."
He was roughed up as well, he said. Parker said a police lieutenant ripped his shirt and left scratches on his neck.
That day, Parker said, there seemed to be 10 times more police officers in Tiananmen Square. He said there were a number of police vans parked near the square, as if the police had been tipped by someone that the protest was going to happen.
"They loaded us into a police bus and took us to the police station, and when we got there, the officers tried to beat us," Parker said.
But a high-ranking official stopped the beatings. Parker said he believes if the protesters had been Chinese, they would have been beaten within an inch of their lives.
"You can tell the people of China are not protected by their government," he said.
About 9 a.m. Friday, Parker said, they were loaded into a police bus - without being told where they were going -- and driven to the airport and roughly shoved onto the plane.