A security guard walks along the drive of the main gate entry to the Falun Gong Dragon Springs compound, Friday, March 8, 2019,
- In upstate New York, about 100 Falun Gong practitioners are living in a secretive compound hidden by forest on 400 acres.
- It's been expanding since 2001, but locals in the area are growing concerned over the effects its latest expansion could have on the environment.
- Inside, internet access is restricted, relationships are arranged, and conventional medicines are frowned upon.
- Falun Gong's founder Li Hongzhi lives there, although he has not been seen for years.
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Surrounded by forests and guarded by armed security, Dragon Springs is a refuge for persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. Few outsiders are permitted inside.
About 100 people are said to be living in a 400-acre property in upstate New York, in the shadow of the Shawangunk Mountains. It's meant to be a mecca for the estimated tens of millions of Falun Gong followers, members of a religious and political group persecuted in China, which calls the group a "cult."
Inside Dragon Springs, according to sources who spoke to NBC News, internet access is restricted, medicine is barely used, and relationships are often arranged. David Ownby, a history professor at the University of Montreal who studied Falun Gong, also calls it a cult and says it exists because of China's efforts to keep traditional religions weak.
For years, nearby towns like Deer Park have been trying to rein in the compound. But Falun Gong leaders want to expand it even more. It wants to build a 920-seat music hall, a new parking garage, a wastewater treatment plant, and turn a meditation hall into a residence hall. If allowed, the compound would go from housing 100 people to 500.
Here's everything we know about Dragon Springs.