Chinese Survey Finds Religion Booming

China has three times as many religious believers as previously thought, according to a new survey that suggests this nominally atheist nation has never been more open to the "opium of the masses".

Professors at East China Normal University estimated that about 300 million people - equivalent to more than 30% of the adult population - followed Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Muslim or other beliefs.

The new figures cast doubt on official statistics, which claim China has only 100 million religious worshippers, as well as calling into question the government's assertion that superstitious beliefs will wither away under communist rule.

Many religions have flourished since the end of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when temples, churches, mosques and shrines were desecrated.

International rights groups still frequently condemn China for jailing Catholic priests, Presbyterian preachers, Uighur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns.

However, the numbers of followers in all of these religions is growing as the allure of Marxism declines and more people look for something beyond the grim materialism of modern Chinese life.

"After drastic changes in the past half a century, we now see bewildering moral decline, apathy between people, estrangement. All these have driven people to find new spiritual sustenance," Liu Zhongyu, who headed the survey team, was quoted as saying.

According to the survey - which was published in the state-run China Daily - two-thirds of believers are Buddhist, Taoist or devotees of legendary figures such as the Dragon King and the God of Fortune.

The researchers estimated the Christian population at 40 million, vastly above the government figure of 16 million.

The change is evident throughout the country. At St Francis cathedral in Xian the congregation for Sunday evening Mass is so large many must stand. Priests say contributions from local and overseas donors have doubled in five years, which has funded new schools, clinics and other social projects, including water treatment facilities.

At the Xian Great Mosque, mullahs say the number of worshippers has increased by 30% in the past five years and loval travel agents are doing a roaring trade in organising trips to Saudi Arabia for the hajj. In Qinhai, hawkers selling Tibetan buddhist beads, robes and incense say business is booming because so many new monastaries are opening.