Religious Organizations and Places of Worship

This haunted house-style escape room on the second floor of Shimao Gongsan Mall is surprisingly vast, offering over 20 fright-filled experiences. A warning, however: this is not for the faint of heart.

A Christian congregation that has been meeting since August of 2008. Foreign passport holders only.

Also known as the Church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, the newest and yet least well-kept of the four cardinally named churches.

Also known as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the oldest Catholic Church in Beijing is currently the Diocesan Cathedral.
Service hours: Sun 6, 7, 8.30, 10am (English), 4pm (English).

Built in 1902 as the French embassy church in the foreign Legation Quarter, St. Michael’s now welcomes Chinese and foreigners to its Chinese-language service.
Service hours: Sun 7, 8am, 6pm. Contact Father Gao Yang (8511 5405, 137 0130 5933)

Gangwashi Church is a Protestant church built during the 1860s under the sponsorship of the London Missionary Society. In 1900, the church was destroyed during the Boxer Uprising and was rebuilt in 1903. In 1922, the church merged with the China Christian Church. The Gangwashi Church regularly performs Sunday services in English and Korean, as well as Chinese.

Though somewhat overshadowed by neighboring Baita Temple, Guangji boasts some serious credentials as the headquarters of the Chinese Buddhist Association. In the two beautiful tree-filled courtyards, worshippers and monks kneel side-by-side in prayer. The relatively new temple halls, rebuilt after a huge fire in 1934, are closed to the public. Although there is a guest center, this active temple is comfortably free from tourists and maintains the austerity of a place of worship.

Originally built in 1870, the first American Methodist church and the largest existing Protestant church in Beijing holds services in Chinese with English translations.