Dani Lao Church, Yanchibang

Yanchibang Church (砚池浜天主堂, Yànchíbāng Tiānzhǔtáng) is a small farm-country church in the Xingta (兴塔, Xīngtǎ) area of Jinshan, and one of the four Jinshan churches that were reopened in the 1980s and 1990s. Its story starts in a private house.

From a farmhouse to a parish church

The Jinshan gazetteer says that in the early years of the Daoguang reign, around the 1820s, Mass was first said in the home of a villager named Zhang Zhilin. In 1847 a small church was built in the old house of Zhang Xianggen. A larger church followed in 1907, and its opening ceremony was held the next year. Father Xu Shiguang added a bell tower in 1927, and Father Zhao Ande built east and west wings in 1934.

An outstation that became a head church

Yanchibang was first a dependent chapel of the Zhijihui church in the Fengjing district, then in Songjiang County. Later it rose to be a head church in its own right, with outstations at Chaonitan, Fengjing town, Shuiziwei, Shengjiatan and Maobang. The gazetteer counts about 250 Catholics around it. Activity ended in 1953.

What happened after 1953?

The church was occupied during the Cultural Revolution. In October 1987 the local Catholics paid for repairs themselves, and a reopening Mass was held on 28 October, with about 500 people. After that, a priest came once a month.

What to look for

When the church was registered in 1995, the site measured 864.7 square metres with 449.5 square metres built: a church, a dormitory and a kitchen. The gazetteer calls the church an “old-style transept hall” (老式横厅), meaning a plan with a crossing hall rather than the Gothic form of the other Jinshan churches. Walk the compound to see how a village church’s service buildings sit beside the hall.