China is situated in the eastern part of Asia, on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is the third largest country in the world (after Canada and Russia). The population of China is over 1.2 billion people. This is about one-fifth of the world's population.

China is a united multi-ethnic nation of 56 ethnic groups. The Han people made up 91.96 percent of the country’ total population. While the remaining 55 ethnic groups collectively called ethnic minorities, comprise less than 8 percent. Of them, the Zhuang is the largest ethnic minority group, with a population of more than 15 million,

China is a country with great diversity of religions, with over 100 million followers of the various faiths. The main religions are Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, China’s indigenous Taoism, along with Shamanism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity and the Naxi people’s Dongba religion Mandarin is spoken by about 870 million people as a first language. An additional 180 million or so people speak it as a second language. The total number of speakers is over a billion.

Christianity is now one of the biggest religions in China, second only to Islam. It would be inconceivable that little is written about the history of Christianity in China.

According to BBC, China's media are tightly controlled by the country's leadership. Beijing also attempts to restrict access to foreign news providers by jamming shortwave radio broadcasts, including those of the BBC, and blocking access to web sites.

• Pray that God would guide and guard current and future church leaders.

• Pray that the Lord will strengthen and encourage believers even in the face of persecution

• Pray that new president Hu Jintao would make wise decisions