PAOKING, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. - In the south-western part of the civil province of Hunan, in central China.
It was erected as an apostolic prefecture on 9 February 1938, with 9 civil sub-prefectures detached from the mission of Yungchow and entrusted to the Friars Minor, who sent there Hungarian fathers from the regular province of S. Giovanni da Capestrano.
It has an area of 60,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1948, out of a total population of approximately 4,000,000 inhabitants, there were 1,581 Catholics and 676 catechumens. Six Hungarian Franciscan fathers and three lay brothers were working there. The auxiliary personnel consisted of 3 Hungarian sisters, 7 catechists, 1 teacher, 2 physicians, and 15 nurses. There were 3 principal mission stations and 21 secondary ones. The institutions consisted of 3 hospitals, 3 dispensaries, and 2 orphanages. There were only 2 elementary schools.
The beginnings of evangelization are recent: from 1928 some Franciscan fathers of the province of the Holy Name, in the United States of America, worked there; in 1930 they transferred the territory to their Hungarian confrères. Upon the arrival of the latter, only two Christian communities existed: one at P., with more than 200 faithful, and the other at Sinwha, with little more than 100.