Many people believe that a church must have a Gothic spire or else it cannot be called a church. However, after the gospel was introduced into China, it collided with and integrated with the Chinese culture, giving birth to some churches in a Chinese stylefor instance, Changsha Church Christianity and Guangzhou Zion Church.
Changsha Christian Church (or Changsha Chengbei Church) was formerly named Yongheng Church and was built in 1930. It is the largest and the most complete modern church in Hunan, the south central part of China.
The three-storey church features a plain Latin cross with its entrance facing east. It has a tripartite facade design, representing the characteristic of Chinese traditional buildings through its hip roof of the antechamber and the hip-and-gable roof of the opisthodome. The square windows are Chinese partition boards with Christian pictures printed on them.
In 2002, the church was listed as a "Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the Provincial Level"by the Hunan government and one of the protected modern buildings in Changsha.
Located in No. 392, Renmin Zhong Road, Jiawan District, Guangzhou, Zion Church was completed in 1936 with Chinese Characteristics. It has red external walls and adopts Lingnan traditional classic architectural style inside the church.
The Gothic-style main hall is decorated with Lingnan-style windows and the courtyard reveals the space layout of "a winding path leading to quiet seclusion" and "seeing much in little."
- Translated by Karen Luo
