In 1987, the journey began...

From June 19 through July 12, 1987, I was involved in a tour of China that changed my life. The purpose of the tour was to explore the possibilities of conducting a series of tours in China celebrating the 100th anniversaries of Woman’s Missionary Union, SBC, where I was on staff, and of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Foreign Missions, an offering that had been launched at the suggestion of the famed missionary for whom the offering was later named. The tours were to be called “Lottie Moon Tours,” and though they would include much more, the focus was to be on several locations in the Shandong Province in eastern China where Lottie Moon had served nearly forty years (1873-1912). 

It was my privilege to be selected as one of six staff members to participate in this ‘fact-finding’ tour, and in return, I would have responsibilities for helping to prepare materials for the tours and to lead one of those tours as a staff leader, which I did in 1988. 
In preparing this report, I am indebted to Dr. Lee N. Allen, historian, professor, and dean at Samford University in Birmingham, and a participant on the fact-finding tour. In addition to assisting Catherine Allen, tour director, biographer of Lottie Moon, and executive at WMU, SBC., Dr. Allen kept a meticulous and detailed diary of every aspect of the trip. 
There were twelve ‘official’ participants on the tour, but other members our group varied from day to day. Missionaries Britt and Jody Towery accompanied us throughout much of the trip, providing much assistance, helping us understand what we were seeing and providing background for the recent history of the Chinese church, since they had many years of experience in Taiwan and Hong Kong and knew the mainland Protestant church leaders. Of course, we had help from many Chinese associated with the tour industry and at the different places we visited. As we traveled from place to place, we met people who accompanied us temporarily, showing us around areas where missionaries had served and where churches had developed. Chinese officials in every location showed us every courtesy and did a lot of research to help us locate places whose names had disappeared or changed.

The overall goals of the Lottie Moon tours would be for participants to see where Lottie Moon and other missionaries had worked, to worship and fellowship with Chinese believers and learn about the status of churches in the area after the Cultural Revolution, and of course, to visit historic, cultural, and scenic sites in China. 
The total tour lasted three weeks, plus international travel, and took us through Tokyo, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taibei.

Fact-finding tour itinerary:

June 19-20    Birmingham to Tokyo
June 21    Tokyo to Shanghai
June 22    Shanghai, Suzhou
June 23    Shanghai to Jinan, Shandong Province
June 24    Jinan to Weifang
June 25    Weifang, Pingdu, Yexian, Huangxian
June 26    Huangxian, Penglai, Yantai
June 27    Yantai
June 28    Yantai to Qingdao
 

June 29    Qingdao
June 30    Qingdao to Beijing
July 1        Beijing, Great Wall
July 2        Beijing to Guilin
July 3-4    Guilin, to Guangzhou
July 5        Guangzhou to Hong Kong
July 6-8    Hong Kong, Macau
July 9        Hong Kong to Taipei
July 10-11    Taipei to Tokyo
July 12        Tokyo, then home

Following are photos and commentary from some of these places. The photos have been scanned from prints, so the quality is not the best, but they show China at a stage before all the development changed the landscape, and the memories represented in these images bring warmth to my heart.

Roll the cursor over the bottom of each photo to read the caption; click through on the arrows to see all the photos in each collection.

Arriving in Tokyo

We flew from Birmingham, to Atlanta, to Settle, to Tokyo, where we spent the night, then on to Shanghai

Tokyo airport

We only had our carryon luggage for the overnight hotel, so we had been told to be prepared

Eating with chopsticks

We may have struggled with chopsticks, but we were too competitive to 'wimp out' and ask for a fork. Soon, we were adept at using them

Meeting a fellow Baptist

Kim had come to Shanghai the previous year to study Chinese as part of the Journeyman program. After she completed these two years, she returned to China again and again for many years

Shanghai Hotel

This was our hotel; it was three years old and at that time one of the tallest buildings in Shanghai, at 33 stories. This means that in 1987 there were no skyscrapers in Shanghai, which is now overrun with them, including a couple of the tallest in the world. 

Produce market

We were unaccustomed to encountering vegetable markets on the sidewalk and marveled at how pretty and fresh the produce was

Neighborhood parks are busy

One delightful characteristic of Chinese culture is the public use of parks. This is a small neighborhood park near our hotel; the men are playing Chinese chess

Jody leads us on a walk

Jody was familiar with the neighborhood of our hotel, and spoke fluent Chinese, so she led us on a walk around the hotel on our first afternoon

Sunday, June 21, we attended Grace Protestant Church in Shanghai. This church had been a Baptist church before 1949, but now, we have no denominations, only Protestant and Catholic churches. Again, use the cursor to expose the captions and click through the arrows to see all the photos.

Evening worship, first day

You can see that this 7 p.m. service was very well attended, which is still typical for urban churches, most of which have multiple services in order to serve the growing numbers of believers.

Great opportunity

The senior pastor of Grace Church was Charlie Qi (chee, seated on platform), long-time and well-known Baptist pastor in Shanghai was the preacher that evening. Unfortunately, we could not understand Chinese, but we did have some help with the general theme of the sermon

Future CCC president

After the service, we were taken to a reception room behind the stage to meet some of the pastors and elders. Rev. Cao Shengjie was already a VP of the China Christian Council (CCC) and also a minister of Grace Church. She was chief editor of the new Chinese hymnal, as well.

Pastors and elders

We met with several ministerial staff to learn more about the situation of the Chinese churches, less than ten years after churches began to open after the Cultural Revolution. 

Monday, June 22, we went to Suzhou, a small city with a very long history and a tradition of the arts: Kun opera, silk manufacture, traditional Chinese gardens, traditional white buildings lining the canals over which much of the city's transportation moved. It is said that Marco Polo had visited Suzhou 2500 years ago and declared it was like a Venice of the East.

Canal traffic

For centuries China has depended on canals and rivers for transporting goods to market. We are on our way from Shanghai to Suzhou, and crossed this water way and its boat traffic

Farmers work hard

In the fields on the way from Shanghai to Suzhou, we observed a lot of people tending their crops. This person is transplanting rice seedlings. In the south, it is possible to get two rice crops a year, and even further south, three

Traffic jam

On what passed for a highway, we were stopped by a traffic jam that lasted quite a while. We were able to get off our chartered vehicle and look around at the scenery while we waited for it to clear. Today, there is a multiple-lane highway between Shanghai and Suzhou

Roadside commercial enterprises

As we approached the city, we came across these typical temporary structures put up by enterprising families hoping to sell their goods to passersby

Roadside market

Farmers will set up a market wherever there is space; Chinese at that time had no supermarkets in which to buy produce and they liked to buy food fresh every day

From field to market

If you want fresh tomatoes, these were only plucked from the plants a few hours ago

Bicycle as family transport

This scene is indelibly imprinted on my mind. Peaceful, quiet, calm, the roads lined in trees, mom-and-pop shops in the shadow of the trees, and families going to work, school, or shopping, with their one child sitting on the bicycle in a special seat

Famous Suzhou gardens

Suzhou is famous for its several traditional Chinese gardens. There is a saying in China: "Heaven has paradise, earth has Suzhou and Hangzhou." It rhymes in Chinese. Hangzhou is a city in Zhejiang Province famous for its West Lake.

Shaped doorways

This may be where I fell in love with the shaped doorways typical of Chinese parks; round is the most common shape, but others are diamond-shaped, shaped like a vase, some have geometrical shapes. Windows and doorways in Chinese parks are like picture frames and always reveal a scene beyond

Chinese watercolors

I enjoyed a first look at Chinese visual arts, which I have come to love. Judi and Millie and I are looking through a gallery at the garden

Venice of the East

Suzhou is very famous for its traditional architecture and canals, which have been compared to Venice. Both passenger and commercial traffic moved around on the network of canals

Showing off babies

This father is proud of his daughter; most parents are happy to let us photograph their children

Chinese table and stools

Chinese traditional design is expressed in furniture, as well. Chinese value visual harmony

Suzhou silk factory

Suzhou is famous for its silk, and we enjoyed shopping in the factory shop. 

Wood working shop

I was always fascinated to see the way things were done in China; I tried to look behind the scenes and noticed tools and methods that were different from ours

We had one more day in Shanghai. It was still raining lightly, having followed us from Suzhou the night before. I had been out walking early each morning, partly for exercise and partly to see 'real' life in China. Judi went with me today, Tuesday, and thanks to my over-confidence, we got totally and irredeemably lost. For that story, read the story, "Lost in Shanghai." 

But, we did manage to return to the hotel before the group left for the day's activities, which were a continuation of a fabulous experience. I was so taken with China that every time I thought I was getting a bit jaded and forgot just where I was, I envisioned myself on a spaceship looking down on me in China and on the US, half a globe away, and I resumed my sense of wonder that I was actually there.

Tuesday, June 23:  Visiting Muen ("Bathed in Grace") Church, meeting Pastor Shi Qigui, who later became my very good friend, tea at the teahouse in the midst of Shanghai's "Old Town," and a visit to the Shanghai Museum, 

Muen Church

The origins of Muen Church go back to the late 1800s; it was founded by missionaries as a Methodist church. This building was built in 1929 and renamed Moore Memorial Church, in memory of the daughter of an American family who gave the money for its construction

Moore Memorial Church

Now, the church is a Chinese Protestant church, as China does not continue denominations. Located in the heart of downtown, it is one of the largest in Shanghai, in physical plant and in membership, in the range of 6,000+

Pastor Shi Qigui

The senior pastor of Muen Church was Shi Qigui (sure-chee-gway). He had been at Muen since 1953, when he graduated from Nanjing Seminary. In addition to pastoral duties, he is a composer of Chinese Christian choral music

Introduction to Chinese churches

In this photo, we re preparing to hear a presentation by Pastor Shi, who speaks excellent English, on his church and the Chinese church situation. We were indebted to Britt Towery, with his good relationships with church leaders in China, in getting us entry into these circles

Crowds of worshippers

The worship services are so crowded that there are not enough seats, so people sit on mats and stools on stairs and in walk space

Catherine and Pastor Shi consult

Old Shanghai

Before the Treaty of Nanking, concluding the first Opium War, Shanghai was a walled city, rather small, with an economy based on agriculture and fishing. After the British and French gained concession rights, it became a major commercial center

Teahouse and the nine-turnings bridge

This teahouse was in the center of a pond, crossed by a crooked walkway. In 1987, it was still used by local people who gathered daily to drink tea from brown pottery teapots and tiny cups. We enjoyed a cup of tea while on a tour of the garden/market area

The 1987 Shanghai skyline

Shanghai was certainly a large and populous city when we visited in 1987. The view here shows there were not too many tall buildings at that time

View from Park Hotel

We had lunch at the Park Hotel, so-called because it overlooked People's Park, a large inner city park which had been associated at one time with the racetrack maintained by the foreigners for horse racing. As late as 1983, this hotel was the tallest structure in Shanghai

Shanghai today

As a comparison, this is a photo of Shanghai taken from the Pearl TV Tower, looking westward across the river and the famed 'Bund,' which before 1949 was the financial center of Shanghai as international city

Pudong today

In 1987, the skyline you see here did not exist. The Huangpu River runs through Shanghai, serving as a shipping artery in older times, and forming the eastern boundary of the commercial city, with farming on the east side. What you see here began with the TV tower, built in the early 1990s and continues today

On to Shandong Province: We spent several days in Shandong Province, visiting sites where Lottie Moon and later missionaries had worked, visiting newly reopened churches, and seeing new territory, consisting of beaches, mountains, farms, villages, small towns, and famous cities.

Airport in Jinan

This is the airport terminal for Jinan, capital city of Shandong Province. In 1987, all airport terminals were small and very basic in terms of design and function. Today's airports would rival any in the world

Qilu Hotel, Jinan

Tourist hotels were being built everywhere, and were relatively modern for the day

Typical hotel room

Millie and I shared a room in Jinan - Catherine assigned roommates for each new location, so we would get to know everyone. You can see the chair and table arrangement, with the hot water thermos on the table, with cups and teabags. All hotel rooms provided slippers and toiletries: toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, soap, and shampoo

Church visit, Jinan

This church building had been built in 1926; it had been damaged in the Cultural Revolution and recently restored and reopened. 

Pastor Xiang, 81

Because the seminaries were closed for around 15 years, there were no new graduates, so many pastors were in their late 70s and 80s. Notice the numbers in red on the back wall - these are hymn numbers, and the poster with characters 

Mount Tai (Taishan)

Taishan is one of the five most historically and culturally significant mountains in China. Climbing Mount Tai is a goal for many Chinese, having been a place of veneration and worship for many Chinese emperors, including Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor or a unified China, in 219 BC

Group photos prove you were there

Until fairly recent times, Chinese people traveled with co-workers as arranged by their factory or company. People did not have money or time for personal travel. That has changed today and Chinese tourists are everywhere, both domestically and internationally

Construction at a price

We were all moved nearly to tears seeing men such as this one climb hundreds of stone steps carrying bricks for various construction projects on the mountain. We rode up in a cable car, but all supplies for the operation of the resort were carried up on shoulder poles

Street scene

Traffic was very different then from now; there were even mule carts in the cities and of course, bicycles

Tradition and construction

China had so many traditional buildings that had been neglected or damaged in the Cultural Revolution, and were then being renovated and repaired

Traveling by train

We left Jinan by train; this old train station will have been replaced today by a large modern structure, as are train stations all across China

Going to Lottie Moon country. Great excitement! We took a train from Jinan to Weifang, where we got a visa to visit Pingdu. At that time, not all small places were open for outsiders or foreigners, due to lack of facilities. Then, we went by van to Pingdu, a place where Lottie Moon lived for a time, and from which she traveled to teach the women (with the men listening through open doors and windows.

Arriving at Weifang

We arrived at the small Weifang train station at 10:30 p.m. In the morning, we got the visa to visit Pingdu and were joined by about six local guides and officials for our tour in the Pingdu area; they are quite happy about the prospect of hundreds of foreign guests in the next few years

Getting started

Shaling village is where we really felt we had found Lottie Moon.