The Hong Kong Christian Council is organizing a group of church and organization workers to visit churches in the Yunnan Province, Southwest China.

The group will depart on April 20, and visit remote counties where the ethnic-minorities live. After arriving in Kunming, the capital city of the Yunnan Province, the group is will move on to Ruili, Longchuan, Yingjiang, Baoshan and Dali. They will visit various ethnic minority churches there as well as Christian education centers and church-run AIDS prevention centers.

Christianity is no stranger to the Yunnan Province. As early as the mid-18th century, Western missionaries resided in the Yunnan Province and preached to the ethnic-minorities there. Due to the great effort paid by the early missionaries, as well as many global organizations today, the minorities in Yunnan enjoy the benefit of having Bibles translated into their own dialects. The church has been growing steadily. According to 1997 figures released by Amity Communication, a conservative estimate of Yunnan's total Christian population is set at 750,000.

HKCC hopes that church co-workers and ministers can enrich their knowledge about the churches in Mainland China through this trip. Also, they hope the churches will have the chance to learn more about the Christian education ministry in countryside.