Tianjin Tanggu Church

Tanggu Church dates back to the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century. At that time, Tianjin was a treaty port, and Tanggu was an important port. Many churches from America and Britain had missionary societies that established churches in Tanggu. In the 1920s, the British built a Salvation Army church in Tanggu, which was located to the east of the south gate and covered 200 square meters. Because it was new, this church made a splash in Tanggu, despite its small congregation. With its weekly service and preaching, it became the earliest presence of Protestantism in Tanggu. 

In the 1930s, before the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, there was a gospel church at Tanggu port built by the Methodist Episcopal Church with a size of 180 square meters. It was mainly used for evangelism and had a small number of congregants each Sunday. Because of the accessibility of its location at the port, many dockers and porters from the Yongli Alkali Plant (predecessor of the Tianjin Soda Plant) attended this church.

In the winter of 1945, many Tanggu Christians started small home gatherings, subsequently meeting at places such as Tanggu Yongfeng Hotel, Tanggu Xinjie Street, and Yongshengfu Watch Shop. This was the fledgling stage of Tanggu church, and after some time of preparation, in 1950, after Liberation, Christians deliberated and decided to establish Tanggu Christian church, registering it with the government to officially found their church. The location of that church was in the four rooms on the second floor of a building on Xinli Street in Tanggu. Thirty some believers contributed funds for the rental of these rooms. All the financial support came from contributions of believers, therefore making it a “three-self church” based on the principle of “self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating”. 

The period between 1950 and 1966 was the early stage in the development of Tanggu Christian church. During this time, the patriotic church-loving Christians made indelible contributions, doing their best for the church driven by their love for the Lord. The church was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution with all meetings suspended. 

Not long after the “bringing order out of chaos” of the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Christian services at Tanggu South Street church were resumed. Approximately 130 believers were baptized, joining the church from 1983 to 1989. Under the auspices of the Tanggu district government, Tanggu Church built a new church at 1 Guangzhou Road, which was formally dedicated on December 17, 1989. 

In 2012, the commercial development near Tanggu Church seriously interfered with the safety of the church building. Besides, the church was overflowing with people. Therefore, the district government approved the relocating and rebuilding of Tanggu church. The new building was built at a cost of 30 million yuan and has a maximum seating capacity of 2000 people. The new location is near Daliangzi port, at the back gate of the beautiful Tanggu Hebin Park.     

The groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 27, 2008 at the beautiful Tanggu Hebin Park, and the construction started the following day. During the 434 days when the new building was under construction, the building committee of the church, contractors, designer, and supervisory unit all got along well, smoothly accomplishing the construction of the church. The completion check of the new building was done on February 5, 2010, with its soft opening on August 8, 2010 and official dedication on October 16, 2010.