On a small hill in the middle of the city of Ya’an stands an old school building that was built by Baptist missionaries in the early 1900’s. On park grounds today, it is no longer in use.
One sign on the building indicates that it was most recently the office of the local park administration. A peek into the broken windows and locked doors almost gives the sense of sudden abandonment.
Another sign high above the portico says that it is (was) the Ming De (Bright Morality) Middle School.
One of the things that we have learned on this research trip is that all of the schools that were started by the Baptists were named Ming De, and all of the hospitals were named Ren De (Benevolent Morality). So when we saw the Ming De sign on the building and on the nearby stone designating the building as a Provinciall Cultural Protected Site, we knew that it was the school we were looking for.
Although Esther did not work directly at this school, we imagine that she would have come up here from time to time.
Another beautiful stone building stands empty.