Male, 21, high school graduate working part-time at Longfu Shopping Mall while looking for full-time work. From: Beijing.
During the 1989 Democracy Movement, Zhao took to the streets many times in support of the students. He would go to Tiananmen Square after work, bringing water and food to his university student friends. After martial law was declared in Beijing, his mother advised him to stop going, but Zhao said: “Don’t worry, mother. I just want to be a witness to history.” On June 4, at around 2 a.m., on West Chang’an Avenue between the Cultural Palace of Nationalities and Liubukou, Zhao was hit in the chest by three bullets. He was brought on a flatbed cart to the Second Hospital of Beijing in Xuanwumen District but was already dead on arrival. His family and friends started to look for him late at night on June 3, and finally found his body in the hospital morgue on June 7. Zhao’s ashes were initially kept at Laoshan Cinerary Hall, but, in 1992, local authorities demanded his ashes be moved. They are now kept at his family’s home.
Zhao was said to be kind and always willing to help others. His father, Zhao Tingjie (赵廷杰), and his mother, Su Bingxian (苏冰娴), both deceased, were key members of the Tiananmen Mothers.
From midnight on June 3 to June 7, we began the long process of searching for Longlong. His friends, old classmates, my friends and my colleagues went to all different places, looking through the big hospitals. At the Posts Hospital, we searched among heaps of bodies, but didn't find Longlong. At the People's Hospital, a list of 140 victims' names was posted at the gate, but Longlong's name was not among them. In Fuxing Hospital, all the bodies had been identified but one. This was kept in a refrigerated container, and there were severe bayonet wounds in the body's abdomen. The eyes were still open. We didn't find Longlong there.
On June 7, a colleague said that the hospital where his daughter was working still had many bodies which were unclaimed. It was a hospital near the Sichuan Restaurant in Xuanwu District. At that time, Chang'an Boulevard was still blocked by soldiers in helmets. News about people being killed by the troops still surfaced from time to time. My husband said he would go first. He had to take a circuitous route, as the Fuxingmen overpass was still full of tanks, but finally arrived at that hospital. The hospital showed him pictures of the dead. My husband decided that body No.2 was Zhao Long. Then he was led to the mortuary. Nine bodies which had not yet been identified were on the cement floor. The face and lower torso of body No. 2 was distorted beyond recognition. But judging from the blood stained yellow T-shirt, light blue jeans and white Nike sneakers, it was Zhao Long.
