Sacred Heart Church, Shisanbao

Shisanbao Church (十三保天主堂, Shísānbǎo Tiānzhǔtáng) stands among fields in Tinglin (亭林, Tínglín), in the south of Jinshan. The Jinshan gazetteer dates the parish to 1736 and says that in the 1920s it was the largest church south of the Huangpu.

A parish with fourteen outposts

The church belonged to the Nanqiao deanery and was a head church for fourteen outstations, including Dongjie in Tinglin, Dazhoujing, Gujiahui, Ruanxiang, Zhaoxianbang and Quchaodu. In 1925 the family of Yu Tianchan gave land for a new church of 30 rooms on 15 mu, supported by about 300 mu of church fields. The parish had about 400 members, but on the four great feasts up to 2,000 people gathered, the highest figure for any church in the Punan area.

Closed, then returned

The church closed in 1955, and during the Cultural Revolution the church and its annexes were occupied. In the 1980s Catholics from Tinglin went to Baijia church at Zhangyan for Mass instead.

The 1994 reopening

The property was returned in 1988 and local Catholics repaired the annexes. In May 1994 the diocese paid to repair the church, which reopened on 28 November. On 4 December Bishop Jin Luxian (金鲁贤) came to Jinshan to lead the ceremony; nearly 2,000 Catholics attended. Two nuns live on site and look after it.

What to look for

At the 1995 registration the site measured 2,405 square metres, with 991 square metres of buildings: the church with its bell tower, offices and priests’ quarters. The gazetteer calls the church Gothic. Look at how the tower and the nave relate, and at the separate low annexes that local Catholics repaired themselves.