The Cemetery of Matteo Ricci and Other Foreign Missionaries Travel Guide

It's State Protected Historic Site, locating in the Journal of Beijing Administration College in Xicheng Disreict. It was a cemetery of Metteo Ricci and other foreign missionaries since the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Metteo Ricci, an Italian missionary, came to China in 1582. Besides preaching, he also introduced western sceiences on astronomy, calendar, geography and mathematics to Chinese people. He was buried here in 1611 after his death. The place later became the cemetery of foreign missionaries in Beijing. Now 63 tombstones exist there. It was listed one of the National Important Cultural Relics Pretected Units in 2006.

There were other famous missionaries buried here, such as Johann Adam Schall Von Bell, Ferdinand Verbiest, Giuseppe Castiglione, etc.

The character of the cemetery is that it was built according to Chinese ancient burial customs. All the tombstones are Chinese style with stone carving curled-up dragon on the top. There are two interesting characters with western style. The first one is that the dragon is holding a cross and second one is that the entrance is a squating sheep instead of a lion. According to christianity, christians are lost sheeps. The jod of a priest is to lead lost sheeps back to right track.