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St. Joseph’s Cathedral is one of the city’s best-preserved religious sites and the second oldest Catholic Church in Beijing. It is a reconstruction built in 1904 on the ruins of the burned church. It was originally the residence that Emperor Shunzhi granted to two foreign priests. The two priests established a small church on an empty plot, which was the precursor of East Church. There houses precious religious images by Johann Adam Schall von Bell. The architecture emphasizes a beautiful blend of ancient western and Chinese architectural styles. After the large-scale repair work, East Church reopened in 1980. Nowadays, East Church has become a witness to Catholic cultural development in China, and is a place for communication of western and Chinese cultures.