Zachary Warmbrodt's blog

China's Crowded Churches Stifle 'Religious Warmth'

The group of eight assembles every Sunday morning, risking arrest.

On a Sunday morning in June, they filed into a tiny, windowless underground apartment in Beijing to attend a Christian church service in the second little room to the left of the front door. Pastor He Xian spent the next two hours leading his small flock in hymns and delivering a sermon as congregants sat attentively on plastic folding chairs about four feet away.

The Compass Cafe's Last Days

Beijing's Compass Cafe will close in about a month, when owner Zhang Qiang will head to earthquake-stricken Sichuan province. Despite a seemingly prime spot at an intersection at the northeast corner of the ancient Forbidden City, revenue isn't strong enough to meet the 5,400-yuan monthly rent, which rose from 3,500-yuan a year ago.