East Hall Wangfujing Cathedral Travel Guide

East Hall is called Wangfujing Cathedral and is one of Beijing four cathedrals. Two priests, Li Leisi and An Wensi, established it. (Their nationalities are not clear.) At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the two persons did missionary work in Sichuan Province. At the beginning of Qing Dynasty, they were captured to Beijing and became servants of Prince Su’s Residence. In the twelfth year of Emperor Shun Zhi (1665), Fulin, the Emperor, bestowed them a yerd and an empty place (namely Nowaday address) and they established a church on the empty place, namely the earliest East Hall. There kept many ikons painted by royal artist Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining). The paintings were destroyed by fire in the twelfth year of Emperor Qing (1807). In 1884, people reestablished Romanesque Hall and destroyed in Yihetuan Movement. In East Hall yard, the middle is cathedral sitting on the east and toward the west, twenty-five meters wide, thirth rooms, site on blue stone base and there are three crosses on the peak of the hall. There are eighteen round supporting columns in the hall whose diameters are sixty five centimeters. Column basis is square and there are many oilpaintings with the picture of jesus on the two sides of the hall.