After the Second Opium War, Catholic missionary congregations expanded their activities in China. Among them, the Belgian Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (C.I.C.M.)—founded in Brussels in 1862 by Théophile Verbist and widely known as the Scheutists—was commissioned by Rome to evangelise the vast territories beyond the Great Wall. The congregation remained active in this region for nearly a century (1865–1955). The Scheutists not only carried out significant building activities but also profoundly reshaped the landscapes where they settled. Many mission stations evolved from isolated outposts on the Mongolian steppe into Catholic villages, each of which was characterised by cultivated farmland, communal facilities, and a chapel or church at the spatial and symbolic core. Based on fieldwork and comparative case studies, notwithstanding disruptions, the physical signatures of Scheutist mission villages remain identifiable. Church buildings and their surrounding compounds continue to structure local space and anchor collective memory. Yet this architectural and landscape heritage is still largely overlooked and undervalued. Its historical, cultural, and spatial significance merits closer scholarly attention and a more integrated framework for preservation.

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