From a reader:

My husband and I have just spent ten days in Beijing. A few months ago I blegged for advice from your readers about Mass attendance in mainland China, and following a suggestion there, we asked our pastor to dispense us from the Sunday obligation. Thank you for your help!

As things turned out, one of the few Catholic churches in Beijing was only a block down the street from our hotel, so we decided to go to Mass (but not receive Communion). The church was founded by 17th-century Jesuits, but has been destroyed and rebuilt several times; the current (1905) building looks like any nondescript 1905 church in the US, except for the calligraphed banners on either side of the altar and major statues and the ring of incandescent bulbs around the picture of St Joseph.

There are three masses on Sunday: 6:15, 7:00, and 8:00 a.m. We attended the 7:00 mass, which was the Novus Ordo in Chinese; the priest faced the people across a freestanding altar with the tabernacle behind him above the old wall altar. Responses and hymns were displayed on a lighted display high up and to one side; there were several hymns sung to the accompaniment of an electric organ. A wooden clacker indicated when to kneel, stand, bow, etc.

I couldn’t follow the readings, but the homily included a retelling of the story of the woman at the well. To my shame, I was distracted at the crucial moment and did not hear whether the Eucharistic prayer included praying for Pope Benedict; my husband listened but couldn’t tell. The mass parts were all sung in Chinese to the tunes of the Missa de Angelis. Communion was received both on the tongue and in the hand, all from the priest (no EMs).

The following Sunday we went to the 6:15 mass, arriving ten minutes late and thereby missing the Liturgy of the Word. There was no sign of the freestanding altar from the previous week and the priest faced the wall altar; it was a non-dialogue Tridentine mass. There was no clacker, no light display, and no organ. I presume the mass was said in Latin but I can’t be sure, because anything the priest said was drowned out by the a cappella singing in Chinese. The singing went on the whole time, even as people were crossing themselves for the final Gospel or the priest was turning to them to say "Dominus vobiscum." Communion was received as at the 7:00 mass. As soon as the priest had left the sanctuary, someone started a rosary, while others rolled the freestanding altar out from a side place, and within minutes the 7:00 mass had begun.

congregation numbered about 300 people at 6:15, a bit more at 7:00, almost 100% Chinese. The average age at 6:15 was higher, with almost no children, whereas at 7:00 there were several; that could be a function of the time as well as of the liturgical difference. I would love to know whether there are any other significant differences; for instance, was one of these a PCA mass and one an underground mass? Unfortunately I don’t speak enough Chinese, or know anyone well enough, to ask

P.S. In one response to the bleg, I think someone suggested praying a rosary at a Buddhist temple. We did visit the largest Lama (Tibetan Buddhist) temple in the city, and were struck by the intense sense of piety. Many people were burning incense and making other offerings of fruit or oil or sweet cakes, bowing or kowtowing before the various statues of Buddha. However, a native Beijinger and an American who has lived there both agreed that most of these worshippers probably came to ask for help in some crisis and don’t regularly practice their faith–foxhole Buddhists, as it were.