Former Site of the Beijing Branch of the China Bible House of the Christian Church

The Former Site of the Beijing Branch of the China Bible House of the Christian Church

The Former Site of the Beijing Branch of the China Bible House of the Christian Church is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Former Site of the Beijing Branch of the China Bible House of the Christian Church is located at No. 21 Dongdan North Street.

The Bible House was an institution specifically dedicated to printing and distributing the Christian Bible. Though not a denomination within Christianity, it was an indispensable organization for the dissemination of the faith. In the 13th year of the Daoguang reign during the Qing Dynasty (1833), the American Bible Society commissioned missionaries in China to print the Chinese Bible; in the 15th year of the Tongzhi reign (1876), the American Bible Society's China Branch was officially established in Shanghai; and in the 16th year of the Guangxu reign (1890), the Beijing Branch of the China Bible House (China Bible House Peking Brand) was opened in Beijing. Its first general secretary was American missionary Dr. T.G.N. Gatrell, but there was no printing facility—only wholesale and retail operations were conducted.

In 1923, a private plot of land in Beijing was purchased under the name of the American Bible Society, with donations from the Bible Society of Maryland, USA. In 1927, the old buildings on the site were demolished, and the foundation stone was laid on August 1. The special issue No. 3 of the Bible House Bulletin stated: "This building was designed by a Presbyterian structural engineer," though it is unclear whether the architect was Chinese or foreign. By autumn 1928, the Bible House premises were completed, becoming the central hub for Bible distribution in North China.

This building is an architectural fusion of Chinese and Western styles. It covers an area of 1,826 square meters, with a rectangular floor plan. The entire structure sits atop a one-meter-high platform surrounded by traditional Chinese-style stone railings. The main rooms on the first and second floors consist of a large hall, with smaller auxiliary rooms on the north and south sides, while the third floor, which has a lower ceiling height, contains smaller offices and storage rooms. The exterior walls are made of plain gray brick. The south wall features an entrance, with a staircase located to the west of the small foyer. The northern part of the hall also has a secondary staircase, and the three-flight stairway in the center includes a simple lift for transporting items, which leads to the third-floor offices situated between the double-eaved roof sections. Exiting the north door platform leads down to a small backyard, where an L-shaped single-story building houses the kitchen and storage areas. Below the north-side platform, a small staircase leads down to the basement. Inside the southeast corner room on the ground floor, a small iron door provides access to a hidden room. The central sections of the east and west facades feature two-story-high colonnades with three bays each, supported by square stone pillars with chamfered corners, beams adorned with bracket sets, and carved stone animal ornaments extending outward from the beam ends under the eaves. The walls at both ends of the colonnade have large windows on the first and second floors. All windows in the building are fitted with steel-framed copper wire mesh screens, and the metal window frames are equipped with security iron grilles. Both the north and south entrances feature traditional Chinese upturned eaves. The roof is covered with barrel tiles, featuring a central ridge decorated with ornamental ridge beasts.

To the west of the main building lies a small two-story house, along with auxiliary single-story structures and a garden. The courtyard gate opens onto Meizha Lane to the south and served as the residence of the General Manager (General Secretary) of the Bible House. It is also a representative example of early modern Chinese-Western fusion architecture, where a Western interior layout is paired with a traditional Chinese-style roof. The interior, however, features Western-style decor.

In May 2013, the Former Site of the Beijing Branch of the China Bible House of the Christian Church was designated as part of the seventh group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Municipal-Level Cultural Relics Protection Units in Beijing

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units