Alopen

Alopen (Chinese: 阿羅本 pinyin: Āluóběn; also "Aleben", "Aluoben", "Olopen," "Olopan," or "Olopuen") is the first recorded Christian missionary to have reached China, during the Tang Dynasty. He was a missionary from the Church of the East (also known as the Nestorian Church), and probably a Syriac-speaker from the Persian Empire, or from Syria in the Byzantine Empire. He is known exclusively from the Nestorian Stele, which describes his arrival in the Chinese capital of Chang-an in AD 635 and his acceptance by Emperor Taizong. His is the earliest known name that can be attached to the history of Nestorianism in China.

Alopen's name is known only from the Chinese of the Nestorian Stele. This may be a transliteration of the Semitic "Abraham" or aloho punoya, "the conversion of God." According to the Stele, Alopen and his fellow missionaries came to China from Daqin (or Ta Tsin – the Roman Empire) in the ninth year of Emperor Taizong (Tai Tsung; 635), bringing sacred books and images. He would have come to China via the Silk Road. The Nestorian mission benefited from Taizong's policy of religious tolerance, which reversed measures his father Gaozu had taken against Buddhism and other foreign religions and influences.

...
Wikipedia