"More churches are on the restoration and rebuilding agenda ... they include the Zhengfu Church and the Pingfang Church in Haidian and Chaoyang districts," Zhao Qinglong, a priest, said.

"Work on the Bishop Administrative Building near Xishiku Church, which will cost 67 million yuan, has already started," he said.

"Beijing is in need of more places of worship. The number of Catholics in Beijing is 50,000-60,000, but we have only 20 Catholic churches, eight in downtown and 12 in the suburbs," said Father Matthew Zhen Xuebin, secretary-general of the Catholic Church of the Beijing Diocese.

"The number of Catholics is growing as people enjoy more freedom to choose their religions and because more foreigners are coming to Beijing," Zhen said.

Wang Shunli lives in Changping district in Beijing's suburbs but attends the Xuanwumen Catholic Church far away from his home. After hearing that more Catholic churches would be rebuilt, he said: "It's great news I will be among the thousands of believers to benefit because we will have more choices to attend Sunday mass."

The Beijing municipal government plans to rebuild and restore two mosques, too. One of them is in Jianfang Street in Xicheng district and the other in Qianmen in Xuanwu district, said an official surnamed Ding, who is in charge of Islamic affairs in the Beijing Religion Bureau.

Associations for the other two religions were not available for comment yesterday.

-- (China Daily, Jan 19, 2009)