Christmas 2011: Chinese Brazilian American Dutch style

It may be well too late for Christmas pictures, but I did want to share a couple shots of our visit to St. Josephs Cathedral in downtown Beijing. Churches are just not that easy to come by here, so it was fun to soak up the atmosphere and bellow out a couple Christmas songs in English.

We did bring our passports again -- churches are not for the Chinese, see also my post from last year -- and after the service had a lovely Shanghai-style dinner at a nearby restaurant. Christmas Eve we'd already had a great meal at home, with friends and Brazilian food. A bit of a mix of cultures, which was fun.


St. Josephs Cathedral in Wangfujing



Use the side entrance to get in. The little blond boy in line is Thomas.



Don't take pictures in church!
-- During the service Thomas leans over to me and says: "Remember that we also did Jesus when we lived in America?" :)

Checking out the nativity scene after the service.

Desperate for Christmas dinner...

The bell boy (Simon) shows me the way to the bathroom.

Big questions: What kind of dumplings should we order?

Back in time: Christmas Eve dinner at home.


In het Nederlands: Vandaag wat late fotootjes van ons bezoek aan een kerk op 25 december.

Merry Christmas - Bring Your Passport

A (belated) Merry Christmas to all of you.

Friday night we went to a church to celebrate Christmas Eve (kerstavond). China, of course, is officially a non-religious country (even though many Chinese are buddhists or taoists). So while there are churches around, there are not a lot of them, and they all have a bit of an underground feeling to them.

This particular church we went to was in some sort of art expo center (see photo). We had to bring our passports to show we were foreigners, because Chinese citizens would not be allowed in. It was dreadfully cold and the few space heaters (or the words of the pastor, if you ask me) weren't able to heat up the room.

After the service we had dinner at a friend's house. All in all the evening was lovely - but as Simon said: "it was not like our old church in Washington."


Hoofdpunten in het Nederlands: We hebben kerstavond gevierd in een Katholieke kerk in een expositiecentrum. Chinezen zelf mogen niet naar de kerk, dus we moesten onze paspoorten meenemen om te laten zien dat we buitenlanders zijn en wel naar binnen mogen.