We saw a chuch
We were driving around an area north of Badaling in Yanqing county. It was very much a drive taken on a whim, like many of our afternoon road-trips. We were really surprised with what we found.
When I look through the Beijing guidebooks I read about interesting places north of the city that are described as being hours away. I'm still surprised when we stumble upon some of these locations after a relatively short drive. Yesterday in Yanqing we saw signs for some places that we would have liked to visit had we planned for more time. We will return to that area, only another exit north on the expressway beyond the most popular section of the Great Wall. We were really close to the Guyaju Cave dwellings and Yongning Ancient Town, but we didn't have time to visit them. Another weekend, for sure. Yongning apparently has a very old Catholic Church in it, and that is something I cannot miss.
Looking for the exit to the highway we passed a much more recently constructed church in Yanqing. We stopped to get a few pictures of the exterior. It was open, but I didn't take any pictures inside because they were having a service. I am pretty sure that this is one of the Protestant Christian churches that were recently constructed around Beijing as mentioned in this article. I haven't gotten a lot of pictures of some of the noteworthy active Protestant churches around because when I see them, I'm not expecting them so I don't have my camera at the ready. Changping has a very large Christian church, and a few months ago I was in a taxi riding past the Haidian Church. The one in Haidian is particularly noteworthy because Presidents Bush and Clinton as well as then Secretary of State Rice worshipped there on their respective official visits to China.
Here is the Yanqing Christian Church.
When I look through the Beijing guidebooks I read about interesting places north of the city that are described as being hours away. I'm still surprised when we stumble upon some of these locations after a relatively short drive. Yesterday in Yanqing we saw signs for some places that we would have liked to visit had we planned for more time. We will return to that area, only another exit north on the expressway beyond the most popular section of the Great Wall. We were really close to the Guyaju Cave dwellings and Yongning Ancient Town, but we didn't have time to visit them. Another weekend, for sure. Yongning apparently has a very old Catholic Church in it, and that is something I cannot miss.
Looking for the exit to the highway we passed a much more recently constructed church in Yanqing. We stopped to get a few pictures of the exterior. It was open, but I didn't take any pictures inside because they were having a service. I am pretty sure that this is one of the Protestant Christian churches that were recently constructed around Beijing as mentioned in this article. I haven't gotten a lot of pictures of some of the noteworthy active Protestant churches around because when I see them, I'm not expecting them so I don't have my camera at the ready. Changping has a very large Christian church, and a few months ago I was in a taxi riding past the Haidian Church. The one in Haidian is particularly noteworthy because Presidents Bush and Clinton as well as then Secretary of State Rice worshipped there on their respective official visits to China.
Here is the Yanqing Christian Church.
Comments
I have the Insight Guide to Beijing and it doesn't have good directions to anything outside the main part of the city. People who use these typically are tourists who can't drive in China, so they would probably join a tour group or hire a driver to go to these places.
With our new GPS now working (YEA!) we are trying to map these places out. I'm also looking for a better guidebook, but the ones I looked at at the bookworm yesterday were all used and not much better than the one I have.
I did get the Beijing on Foot box of maps and it is fantastic and surprisingly accurate. However, it only covers the main part of the City.