Streetsnap: Beijing Christmas Eve 2019

Christmas is both a secular and a religious holiday in Bejing,  and many families like to attend a midnight service at church on Christmas eve, or celebrate Christmas morning.

A longline is snaking out on the sidewalk , tickets have to be booked a few days in advance,  and people have to queue for ages in mid-witer to get in.

Reputed as Beijing‘s Notre Dame de Paris,   Xishiku church has not the grave and massive frame, the large and round vault, the glacial bareness, the majestic simplicity of the edifices which have the rounded arch for their progenitor.

Opened in 1887,  Xishiku Church , once a long time as the Catholic Diocese of Beijing,  is one of the largest and oldest church at present.

Against the cold, some couples go to church to spend Christmas eve.