A praying family

behind the Sangyu Church is a small hill on which top a virgin mary statue decorated with plastic flowers. During my last 3 time visits, i met few pilgrims coming here, might because we just made a short visit here on saturday. But this time when we got on the top courtyard, we saw a family kneed on the step before the Virgin Mary statue and were praying in low voices and sang later songs in Chinese.


The father sent his son come to the upper steps and let him led others praying. I wonder he could remember that much words. From their accent i guess they from other provinces. From the top of the hill, i could birdview the whole village. It is a quiet, isolated place surrounded by mountains and good for learning doctrines and reflect oneself.

北京桑峪村天主堂 Beijing Catholic church in Sangyu village

桑峪村天主堂 Catholic church in Sangyu village, originally uploaded by PhotoSino.

Sangyu catholic church locates in the village of Sangyu in the mountainous area in western Beijing. Our car turned away from the national road 109 to direction of Lingshui and in just 2 km we arrived this village.

Trough a arch gate with a tower on the top , we already saw the spire behind the houses at the foot of a small hill. It is a quite village, as most vistors pass by the village and drive to its neighbor village with many peasants' guesthouse where people from the urban could taste the simple rural way of cooking.

But I like this village more and this was my 4th visit here. The people in this village are all cathlic. It is said that there were missionaries who came to here to preach early in the 14th century when Beijing under mongol regime. The church was destroyed during cultural revolution and was rebuilt in 1987.

Inside the church on the prayer's bench are bibles and missals, a old lady was praying in silence in the church and kindly told me to read more introduction of the church outside. I think on sunday there would be more people coming for mass. It is very impressive to go up hill behind the church on which top a iron cross and a beautiful virgin mary statue decorated with plastic flowers.