Dong Jiao Min Hang Catholic Church

Dong Jiao Min Hang Catholic church, also called St. Michael's Church, which means ‘who is like the God’ in Chinese. It was first built in the reign of Guangxu (1901) and was completed at the year of 1904. Built and designed by a French missionary, the church remained me a similar French built Catholic church in Baoding. What is surprising is that the history records prove the two churches started their construction in the same year. For those catholics, this church is a must-see tourist attraction in their Beijing Xian tours.

This is the last Catholic church built by foreigners in Beijing. It was used to be a place where foreigners in embassy district gather to worship the God. Later, Chinese people who believed in God could come the church to pray.

Since built, it was well preserved without experiencing the burning, flooding and war. After Chinese Liberation, the church became the Taijichang primary school. After the school moved out in 1986, the religion activities were going on again in the church. The building is located at the north of Hutong with its door facing south. The main body was made up by two stories on the ground and one story under ground. It is a rectangular building with the east-west symmetry.

In my Xian tour, I heard that there are two Catholic churches which are called Wuxing Street Catholic Church( local people used to call it “the south church”) and Tangfang Street Catholic Church(the north church) respectively.