Believers sing Mass songs during Christmas Eve Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Housangyu village, 70 kilometers west of Beijing center, one of the earliest churches in China. 24-Dec-2017
Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Housangyu village, 70 kilometers west of Beijing center, one of the earliest churches in China, has been rebuilt and was opened in August 1989. The village is in the Mentougou district of Beijing municipality. The history of the church in Housangyu dates back to 1334, near the end of the Mongolian-ruled Yuan Dynasty, according to the ninth issue of the internally circulated diocesan Beijing Catholic News. At that time, all 50 village families were church was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty in 1534 and the Qing Dynasty in 1896, as Catholics overcrowded its capacity, according to the article. The village escaped the persecution in 1901 during the Boxer Rebellion. A rosary hill was built at the church to commemorate the fact. During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), the church was used for a time as a command post after the 1937 Lugouqiao Incident in the Beijing suburbs which marked the beginning of the war. Villagers reportedly helped construct an arsenal nearby, and the concealed documents of a priest resisting the Japanese invasion were discovered by the Japanese army. The church was then burned down. The rosary hill was destroyed during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.（）
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Photo credit: © Lou Linwei / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: beijing, believers, catholic, catholics, catholism, china, chinese, christian, christians, christmas, church, earliest, eve, husangyu, jesus, mass, mentougou, roman
