Venue: Béthanie
Town: Hong Kong, CN

Béthanie is a historic building complex located in Pok Fu Lam, in Southern District, Hong Kong built in 1875 as a sanatorium by the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Béthanie and the nearby Dairy Farm cowsheds were allocated in 2003 to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. After a series of renovations, the complex reopened in 2006 and is now used by the Academy's School of Film and Television. In addition to educational facilities, it includes two performance venues, an exhibition hall, a chapel and a museum. It was declared a monument in 2013. Béthanie is located at No. 139, Pok Fu Lam Road, on Hong Kong Island. Situated between the pine trees, with the seaview of the coast, Béthanie's geographical site provided an ideal restorative place for the French priests to recover from tropical diseases at that time. Today, the Chinese Cuisine Training Institute (CCTI) is located adjacent to Béthanie. Drivers can reach Béthanie by following signs leading to the CCTI. Béthanie was the first sanatorium to be built in Hong Kong. Originally bought from a certain J.J. dos Remedios in June 1873, in 1875, the Missions Étrangères de Paris, led by Pierre-Marie Osouf, finished building Béthanie to serve as a place for priests and missionaries from all over Asia to recover from tropical diseases before returning to their missions. At the same time, the missionaries and priests organized a small-scale printing press in Béthanie to work. The printing press turned out to be a successful operation, publishing religious items of 28 languages. Osouf's assistant, Fr. Charles Edmond Patriat, supervised the construction of the building and became the first Superior of Béthanie upon its opening in 1875. In 1887, Patriat requested a leave of absence and was succeeded by Fr. Holhaan. During its early years, Béthanie suffered many deaths of missionaries due to the immature medicinal technology as well as the spread of incurable tuberculosis. Between 1875 and 1886, 11 fathers had died under the