China photo gallery — Beijing

Rev. Yu Xin Li, president of Beijing Christian Council and chair of the Beijing Committee of Three Self-Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Church shows the design print of a new church under construction in Beijing, as Archbishop Andrew Hutchison looks on.

Sunset in Beijing, capital of the People’s Republic of China.

Children attending Sunday Bible school at a “meeting point” (informal worship space) in the rural county of Fangshan.

Bicycles remain king of the road in modern Beijing.

Book centre at meeting point sells Bibles, hymnals and other Christian literature.

“You’re a hero when you’ve climbed the wall,” say the Chinese to tourists who visit the Great Wall of China.

Members of the Anglican, Presbyterian and United church delegation that visited China with Bishop Michael Fu of the Patriotic Catholic Church of China.

Members of the ecumenical delegation with Ye Xiao Wen, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (to the left of Archbishop Andrew Hutchison), and his staff.

Entrance to the Forbidden City.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was among the churches shut down during the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976. First built in the mid-16th century, it was the first Roman Catholic church to reopen during China’s “opening up policy.”

Packs of incense burnt as offering at the Great Wall of China’s Cheng-Huang Temple.

Miniature replicas of the world-renowned Terra Cotta Warriors found in the province of Xian.

A billboard of former top Communist leaders, including the late chairman Mao Zedong, hovers a “meeting point” (informal worship space) at Fangshan county, distinguished only by a simple wooden cross at rooftop.

Members of the Canadian ecumenical delegation at historic Tiananmen Square, where a series of student-led democracy demonstrations in 1989 ended in violence when soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army used force to end the protest actions.

Flying kites, a favourite Chinese pastime, at Tiananmen Square.