On the past four Sundays, Beijing Chongwenmen Church held traditional weekly bazaars to help poor students, according to the church's WeChat account.
The sales began in 2011 and raise money that will be used as student grants.
On average, around 30 believers including elderly people and disabled people were engaged in the service of each bazaar. The total income of the four bazaars was around 18,600 yuan.
The Chongwenmen Church was first established in 1870 when it was then called Asbury Church. It was the first church constructed by the American Methodist Church in northern China. The scale of this church was smaller than its present size. It was originally designed to hold 400 to 500 people. Although the church appears now as it did back then, its current seating capacity is 2,000 people. As the number of believers increased, the Methodist church began reconstruction of the building, which was completed in 1882. During the Yihetuan Movement (Boxer Rebellion) of 1900, the church was burned down. In 1902, the Qing Dynasty Government appropriated money to rebuild the Asbury Church and was completed in the spring of 1904.
