A Different Prison
In November of 1970, one night all prisoners were suddenly being moved. We carried packages with our few belongings. Two men were handcuffed together. We were filed into many trucks. This was my first time being handcuffed; and it could, indeed, bring much pain to your hands and wrists. In not too long of a time we arrived at a big prison.
It was a municipal prison and had many many courtyards. It was clean and peaceful. Every courtyard had five to six prison rooms. Every prison room was about 20 square-meters. We originally had 20 prisoners in one room, but now we are divided into two groups of ten prisoners to a room. Sleeping conditions were greatly improved. “Let in fresh air” time was also wonderfully extended. We no longer had to run out in a nervous state. We could defecate in a lavatory. No man kept a constant look over us. Also no one had limited water to wash with. One day, although the weather was cold, I still ladled half a washbasin of water to scrub my body because it felt so civilized to do.
So it seemed that we had escaped from death, which was a real possibility in our previously adverse living conditions. I had been in a prison of the district public security bureau for 9 months, but the impression was that was in comparison to being in this municipal prison for 17 months. In the municipal prison I did suffer from hunger and also got very cold. But in general our frame of mind would take a turn for the better.
This new place was opposite in many ways to the district bureau, where we had been. There green soup was very very salty and here there was no green soup at all. So we did not get any salt. In the municipal prison we ate salt only three times, on the two spring festivals and one national day. To my great surprise we had pork braised in brown sauce and everybody got 250 grams. The pork braised in brown sauce was salty.