Church building

 

As I mentioned, there are countless temples in my city and approximately 30 mosques. There are one or two church buildings. This is the biggest one located downtown and while I've heard of a second one, I'm not sure where it is.

Christian missionaries have a long history in China, both good and bad. It's a complicated story and one that I won't get into, but if you'd like to read about it from the Chinese perspective, then please go here:

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/zjxy/t36493.htm

This particular church building houses a vital body of people who are part of what is known as the Three-Self Protestant Church. (China does not recognize the Roman Catholic church.) "Three-self" refers to self-administration, self-support and self-propagation.

While there are only one or two "official" church buildings in any given city (our city has a population of 3.5 million), there are usually dozens or hundreds of groups of people meeting in what is known as "house" churches.