12-year-old girl Liu Siying, one of five people who set fire to themselves in Tiananmen Square on Jan. 23, receives medical treatment in Jishuitan Hospital in Beijing Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2001.

Before the afternoon of January 23, Liu Siying was a happy-go-lucky girl who earned the

nickname "Happy Nut." But now, with burns over 40 percent of her body, the once-pretty

12-year-old faces an uncertain life as a physically impaired person.

Liu's happy-go-lucky life came to an end on that afternoon of the eve of Spring Festival

when her mother led her to Tian'anmen Square in Beijing to enter the "Falun World," reported

Xinhua news agency.

There, they and three other people set themselves ablaze.

According to Xinhua, the fifth-grade pupil at a primary school in Henan Province later told

a nurse in a Beijing hospital that she had to recall remarks by her mother and the other

Falun Gong practitioners to get the courage to set herself on fire:

"The flame can not hurt you. It will only pass through your body and you will reach the

paradise in a twinkling." ... "That is a wonderful world, you could at least become a

'religious king' and many people would serve you."

However, the flames proved them wrong. The pain and fear made the young girl cry "Mom!"

"Uncle! Help! Help me!"

She had failed to reach "paradise."

Liu was rescued by police and taken to Jishuitan Hospital, one of China's most-famous

hospital for treating burn victims.

Doctors at the hospital diagnosed the girl with burns over 40 percent of her body,

aspiration injuries in her trachea and fourth-degree burns to the face.

Liu has been a well behaved girl. Her mother taught her to practice Falun Gong last March.

At noon on Saturday, a Xinhua reporter visited her at a burn ward in the hospital.

Liu's head was bandaged and her burned left hand hung in front of her chest after undergoing

a skin-transplant operation.

Doctors said that all her fingers may have to be amputated.

Though her trachea was cut to be equipped with a endotracheal tube, she could utter words

clearly. The reporter recorded this conversation between Liu and the nurse:

Nurse: "Why did you choose to commit self-burning?"

Liu: "Going to the paradise."

"Where is the paradise?"

"I don't know."

"What's that world like?"

"A wonderful world."

Liu said that it is a world "with gold everywhere and the road to the paradise is also built

with gold."

Nurse: "Why is gold everywhere there?"

Liu: "My uncles and aunts practicing Falun Gong told me."

Nurse: "Are you sure that you could reach that world?"

Liu: "I've not thought of the question. It depends on how hard I practice the Falun Gong."

Nurse: "How do you get to the paradise?"

Liu: "The physical body remains here and the spirit leaves."

Nurse: "How do you know that?"

Liu: "From the book Zhuanfalun (Turning the Wheel of Law) and learned from mom."

Nurse: "Why did you fail to reach that world?"

After keeping silent for a while, she murmured, "Mom fooled me."

Nurse: "Do you still believe in Zhuanfalun?"

She shook her head "no" and asked the nurse, "Could you help me find mom?"

"Your mom is in this hospital," the nurse replied.

Nobody has the courage to tell her the truth - her mother died of burns.