Li Zhizao (李之藻) was a Ming dynasty official-scholar and Catholic from Hangzhou working in Beijing, who had been converted and baptized by Matteo Ricci.

In 1611, when he received news of his father's death, he hurried back to Hangzhou and on the way brought with him two Jesuit priests from Nanjing, Lazaro Cattaneo and Nicolas Trigault.

[1][2][3][4][5][6] The current cathedral in Hangzhou, dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, was originally built in 1661 by the Italian Jesuit Martino Martini, and is still one of the oldest churches in China.

[1] In 1691, during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing dynasty, the governor of Zhejiang, Zhāng Pénghé (张鹏翮) banned Catholicism, took control of the cathedral and ordered all books contained within to be burned.

The following year, under pressure from the Italian Jesuit Prosper Intorcetta, the emperor lifted the ban and ordered the Hangzhou cathedral to be fully restored.

After the cathedral had just barely been completed, the renowned cartographer, historian, and missionary died suddenly of cholera in June 1661, and was buried in the Dafangjing Jesuit Cemetery (大方井卫匡国等公墓) on the north side of Beigao Feng (北高峰).

His remains were found to be undecayed as late as 20 years after his death, as attested by both Belgian Jesuit Philippe Couplet and Prosper Intorcetta, and they therefore became the object of great veneration.

The site also included a Gothic-style chapel which, with the one exception of a Marian statue it once contained, survived the Cultural Revolution remarkably intact, stained-glass windows and all.

A statue of Sr. Hacard has since been erected in the middle of a nearby garden and the chapel, being the only Gothic structure in all of Hangzhou, is today protected as a Provincial Historic Site.

The Catholic Church in Hangzhou also includes a nuns' convent dedicated to the Sacred Heart located in an old historic building on the slopes of Mt.