StatsRegion: AsiaCapital: BeijingArea: 9,596,960 sq kmPopulation: 1,321,851,888 (est July 2007)Languages: Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languagesReligions: Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, IslamLife expectancy: 72.88 (est 2007)Population below poverty line: 10% (est 2004)
InfoBMS has a long history of involvement with China. The first BMS personnel went there in 1860. Thirteen BMS workers (and three of their children) lost their lives in the bloody Boxer Rebellion of 1900 which saw thousands of Chinese Christians killed. By 1935, there were 110 mission workers involved in education and medical work as well as church work. With increasing pressures from the government making life difficult and dangerous for foreign church workers as well as Chinese Christians, all BMS workers had left China by the end of 1952. Since then the Chinese Church has grown in the face of persecution.