Russian Patriarch Starts First-Ever Visit To China

11/5/13 Russia’s Patriarch Kirill has started the first-ever visit to China by a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. On May 10, the first day of his six-day visit, the patriarch met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. While in China, Kirill will meet with Orthodox believers at the Russian Embassy in Beijing and lead a religious service at the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in China’s northeastern city of Harbin, a city founded by imperial Russia in 1898.