Youngsters turning to religion

Seated near the gateway of a lamasery, 27-year-old Qiqige stares at the throngs of worshippers clutching burning bundles of incense as they pray.

Unlike them, she has little interest in bowing to the gods.

Even though she grew up in an ethnic Mongolian Buddhist family, she says she's not a follower. But she doesn't mind accompanying her aunt to Yonghegong.

The college student says the aroma of incense mixed with the scent from the butter-oil lamps relaxes her, and the temple offers her an escape from life outside its red walls.

Located in downtown Beijing, Yonghegong, a Tibetan Buddhist temple with a history of more than 300 years, attracts thousands of pilgrims and visitors every day.

The lamasery, also know as Lama Temple, received an estimated 1.7 million visitors last year, with around 60,000 visitors each day during the peak season of Spring Festival.

Liu Junhong, from Shanghai, has visited many temples across the country, but she says Yonghegong has a richer religious environment than others.

"The ethnic mix of various elements of religion can be spotted everywhere in the temple, such as the co-existence of characters of Tibetan, Chinese as well as Manchu languages," says Liu, who studied classic literature at university.

After three decades of reform and opening up, Chinese people's understanding of religion has changed, and young people no longer see religion as "spiritual opium," says Li Decheng, a religion researcher with the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing.

"Today religion is usually interpreted in a cultural perspective, and is regarded as a personal choice or heritage of values. The change reflects that Chinese society, especially the younger generations, is becoming more inclusive," Li says.

On the other side of the city is Xuanwumen Catholic Church where Tian Yu has just concluded her prayers. "My mum is Catholic. I learned to pray when I was a child," Tian says.

Established as the first church in Beijing by the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci in 1605, it had about 200 devotees. Today, the church is a major attraction for many young worshippers.

The China Religion Report 2010 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says more than 100 million Chinese are religious believers with young people accounting for a third of the total.

Most young people in China receive an atheistic education, but many have converted.

Zhang Yiwu, a humanity professor with Peking University, says this does not suggest the failure of atheistic education.

People born in the 1980s and 1990s can barely stand the pressure of the fast-paced market economy, and convert to get a sense of comfort and relief from religious belief, Zhang says.