Jiansui's temple hospital lives on

Tracing foundations laid by women missionaries in south-west China in the 1940s, Barbara Martin discovered how God’s work there continues.

In the 1960s and 1970s, I worked with Australian missionaries, Dr Helen and Sister Cath Mackenzie, in the Il Sin Hospital in Busan, Korea.

I heard many stories about their experiences of working in south-west China in the late 1940s — stories of a walled Chinese city, a hospital in a Taoist temple, boarded up gods, money into the lap of the gods, forced departure after the communist take over in 1950 and a horrendous journey over the Burma Road.

My dream to visit this place came true last November.

I’d been in China for two weeks touring and observing the place of palliative care in the care of the terminally ill. Afterwards, I flew to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, where I met David and Susanne Nikles.

The Nikles work in Kunming, speak some Mandarin. They too were interested in finding the temple hospital about which I’d heard so many stories.

From 1945 to 1950 four Victorians from the Australian Presbyterian church, the Mackenzies and two deaconesses, Meg Cranston and Rene Watkins, worked in Yunnan under the Christian Church in China (CCC).

Meg worked mainly in Kunming and the others worked in the walled city of Jianshui (once written as Kienshui).

The CCC rented a Taoist temple. The smaller images of the gods were sent off to other temples and those too large to move were boarded up. Wards were constructed in the temple grounds and the hospital soon became very busy.

But all this came to an abrupt end in June 1950 when the communists took over.

For the missionaries it had been a tumultuous few months treating people on both sides of the conflict.

Being the only hospital in the area, it at first appeared that the communists would let the women stay and continue their work. However, after the missionaries were falsely accused of firing a gun from their residence, it became obvious the situation was too dangerous for them and for the church in Jianshui.

The CCC decided they must leave. So the women said their sad goodbyes and left.

Then silence. No further news.

Old and new

A lot of this story appears in the book About Face in China, written by Jean Yule (published 1995 by the Joint Board of Christian Education, Victoria), who with her husband, the Rev. Alec Yule, also worked in China during this period.

Armed with this book, Susannah, David and I set off on our search.

In the late 1940s and early ’50s the journey south from Kunming to Jianshui was by train and took at least two days, sometimes three. In late 2007, we travelled by bus which took only about four hours.

The temple was supposed to be near the North Gate. But there is no longer a city wall and only the east and west gates are kept as historical sites.

Thanks to David and Susanne’s persistence we were eventually given directions to the site of the old North Gate. An older man there said he knew of the temple/hospital and sent us down a most unlikely looking street where, surprisingly, we found a modern hospital entrance.

A young doctor, Dr Shui, said this was the place we were looking for. She took us around to the back of the building and we saw the temple. We had found it!

Dr Shui said that the hospital had continued on that site until February 2007, expanded to about 300 beds. It had then moved to a new site after amalgamating with another hospital to form the major 600-bed district hospital.

We were overwhelmed. Not only had we found it … we had also found that the hospital had continued after the missionaries left.

The next day we walked around the mostly-abandoned hospital buildings in the temple grounds.

We also visited the new hospital.

The hospital had changed from being the “church hospital” to the “people’s hospital”. New two-storey buildings had been added along with six operating theatres. The total bed number had reached 300 — with some concentration on care of children. Facilities had included CT scans, although the CT sign on the old building looked rather incongruous.

Despite all this building, the simple wards, built to Helen Mackenzie’s plans, were still in use until 2005. The caretaker of the site now lives in one of these old wards and the city is planning to restore the temple and the grounds, possibly this year.

We recognised certain areas from the pictures in Jean Yule’s book and our only disappointment was that the temple building itself was locked.

Dr Shui introduced us to a man living close by who had previously worked in the hospital record and archive departments.

Later, we were also given a warm welcome at the new hospital.

Staff in its computerised archive department located pictures of Helen and Cath and their staff (circa 1948) and searched through many albums looking for other photos.

It was so thrilling to see their obvious acknowledgment of the hospital’s beginnings. Not only had the hospital continued and flourished, its start as the “church hospital” also was remembered.

First baptised Christian

The man who had been the archivist recognised a picture in Jean Yule’s book of the first person to be baptised as a Christian in Jianshui. This man, Mr Li, had been a great help to the Australian team.

Mr Li was quite overcome hearing about Helen, Cath and Rene as he believed he would never hear about them again. I also felt quite emotional at meeting someone who knew them during such a significant time.

I hadn’t realised just what an important person Mr Li had been to the team until I returned and read Rene’s account of their time in Jianshui.

Although Mr Li is now blind, his family were thrilled to see his picture in the book. After the communist takeover Mr Li had continued to be a leader in the church. He had become a pastor but was now retired.

In Jianshui there are now about 2,000 Christians among a population of 500,000 and Mr Li’s son-in-law took us to the present church building on the outskirts of the city where the choir was practising.

We had gone to Jianshui not knowing anyone but had found the temple, met Mr Li and been welcomed by so many.

We believe it could only have been God’s doing and were thankful.

Helen Mackenzie, the only remaining member of the team, heard our stories with joy. These stories included how Jianshui’s central historical area — including the temple in which Helen and her sister helped establish a hospital — is to be preserved; that there’s a church in Jianshui which is continuing to witness and to grow; and there’s a hospital which has grown from its church roots to be the provincial hospital serving people throughout the area.

(Dr) Barbara Martin MB BS MRCOG