Halal Travel Guide: Xi'an Ramadan - Mosques, Gongbei and Hui Muslim Life (Part 1)
Reposted from the web
Summary: Halal Travel Guide: Xi'an Ramadan - Mosques, Gongbei and Hui Muslim Life (Part 1) is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear, natural English. The account focuses on Xi'an Ramadan, Gongbei, Hui Muslims while preserving the names, places, food, photos, and historical details from the Chinese source.
I have been to Xi'an many times, but this is my first time visiting during Ramadan. I have always heard that the Ramadan atmosphere in Xi'an is special. Many shops adjust their hours to serve pre-dawn meals (suhoor), and the mosques are very lively when it is time to break the fast (iftar). I used the Qingming holiday to experience it for myself.
April 4th
We stayed at a guesthouse run by a friend (dosti) on Hongbu Street in the Muslim Quarter, which made getting around very easy.
At 3:00 a.m., we wandered over to Miaohou Street. Miaohou Street has the most options for pre-dawn meals in the Muslim Quarter. We saw offal soup (zagan tang), spicy soup (hula tang), steamed rice cake (zenggao), crumbled flatbread in soup (paomo), meat pies (rou hezi), and much more.
At 3:20 a.m., we ate crumbled flatbread in soup (paomo) at Yibaolou on Miaohou Street. Yibaolou and Sanyicheng are two of the most popular spots in the Xi'an Muslim Quarter for pre-dawn meals.
It takes twenty minutes to break the flatbread (mo) into pieces. They put the meat in the pot right at the door, and the open kitchen is very clean. Besides meat and glass noodles (fensi), their soaked flatbread (paomo) also includes dried bean curd sticks (fuzhu) and pressed tofu (dougan). During Ramadan, they even give out free fried eggs and pickles. The paomo tastes great overall, but it is a little bit oily. Their chili sauce is salty, so be careful not to add too much or you will get thirsty.
Zainab had the vegetable stew (huicai), which is made by adding greens, tomatoes, and wood ear mushrooms to the meat broth used for paomo. The soup is thicker than a regular vegetable stew.
At 5:30 in the morning, the call to prayer (adhan) at the Xiaopiyuan North Mosque was melodic and moving.
The Xiaopiyuan North Mosque was built by imperial order in 1312 (the first year of the Huangqing era of the Yuan Dynasty) and renovated in 1614 (the 42nd year of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty). Inside the prayer hall, the brackets (dougong) extend outward and layer inward. The center features a four-cornered, multi-eaved, pointed roof known as the 'Eight Trigrams Hanging Roof' (bagua xuanding). It is built using a connected, interlocking style and is a very precious piece of architectural art.
During the day, the Muslim Quarter (Huifang) belongs to the tourists.
At noon, I went to Hujiagou in Xianyang to visit the grave of Master Hu Dengzhou. Hu Dengzhou (1522–1597) was the founder of the scripture hall education (jingtang jiaoyu) system in Ming Dynasty China. He studied Confucianism and Islamic scripture from a young age. Later, he created a method to teach religious classics in Chinese, which laid the foundation for the integration of Islam and Confucianism (Yi-Ru huitong). Master Hu also combined Islamic scripture education with traditional Chinese private school (sishu) education to start the scripture hall education system. Through the efforts of Master Hu and his students over several generations, scripture hall education spread everywhere. It trained many excellent teachers and developed systems like the Shandong school, the Jinling school, and the Shaanxi school.
After Master Hu passed away (guizhen), he was originally buried by the Wei River. In 1662, the first year of the Kangxi reign, flooding from the river threatened the grave, so it was moved next to the Great Mosque (Qingzhen Dasi) in Weichengli. Weichengli is a fertile area stretching over ten kilometers north of the Wei River, northeast of Xianyang. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was a settlement for Hui Muslims. Three mosques were built there, and the largest one is the Weichengli Great Mosque next to Master Hu's grave.
Two stone tablets stand by Master Hu's grave. One is the 1673 record of the grave relocation written by Ma Si, and the other is the 1718 record of the grave's renovation written by Ma Fengzhu. Both are valuable historical documents about Master Hu.
The Monument for the Relocation of Hu Dengzhou's Grave was written by Ma Si Baba, a junior student of Hu Taishi Baba, after he learned in Wuhan that the master's grave had been moved. Before he died, he asked for the text to be carved onto a stone to keep it safe. The stone is still kept inside the tomb pavilion of Ma Si Baba in Wuhan. The Record of Building the Ancestral Tomb of Hu Taishi was originally placed next to the grave of Hu Taishi Baba. Two elders from Xi'an, Ma Yu and Li Fengming, visited the grave of Ma Si Baba in Wuhan and saw the Monument for the Relocation of Hu Dengzhou's Grave. They translated the meaning of the Arabic text on that monument into Chinese and set up this new stone. Feng Zenglie, a teacher at Northwest University at the time, copied the text in 1956. After hearing that the original stone was destroyed, he organized and published the text in 1981, which caused a great stir in the academic community.
The couple who guard the grave of Taishi Baba are local believers (dost). They grow all kinds of vegetables in the yard and have even picked some fresh Chinese toon (xiangchun) sprouts that smell wonderful. They also planted some bougainvillea (sanjiaomei) in the vegetable patch, and the purple flowers look very beautiful.
There are over a dozen dairy goats in the yard, including some new lambs and some born last year. This makes it very convenient for people who come to perform a religious sacrifice (niatie). The grass the goats eat is also grown by the couple, who cleared a large piece of land for it.
In the afternoon, I returned to the Hui Muslim quarter and waited for the fast-breaking (iftar) at the Dapiyuan Mosque. Dapiyuan Mosque was built in 1411 (the ninth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty) under the leadership of the famous early Ming imam Ma Daozhen, who spent five years raising funds for it. It was renovated during the Jiajing reign and repaired twice during the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns.
When breaking the fast, people are busy eating snacks like cake, dates (yezao), and tea.
After the sunset prayer (maghrib), we ate the fast-breaking meal, which included zucchini, cold skin noodles (liangpi), stir-fried meat, steamed eggs, mung bean porridge, and steamed buns (momo). There were many people, and the atmosphere was great.
After the meal, we performed the night prayer (tarawih). The calligraphy and paintings on the kiln-style hall (yaodian) of the mosque are also very old.
After the tarawih prayer, Zainab asked me to have some eight-treasure porridge at Xiao Jia Eight-Treasure Porridge shop near the entrance of the Dapiyuan women's mosque. The shop is hidden in the alley, so most people do not notice it. Besides eight-treasure porridge, they also serve potstickers (guotie) and cold skin noodles (liangpi). The porridge is packed with ingredients, and the environment is quite nice. After finishing the porridge, we had some sour plum drink (suanmeitang) on the street. The freshly brewed sour plum drink (suanmeitang) sold on the streets of the Muslim Quarter is very tart and perfect for quenching thirst during Ramadan.
April 5.
At 3:30 a.m., we had a lotus leaf bun sandwich (heye bing jiacai) with red bean porridge at Ma's Family restaurant on Miaohou Street in the Muslim Quarter. Many people were buying their pre-dawn meal (suhoor) there. Lots of customers chose the fried pancake sandwich (youbing jiacai), but we found the pancake a bit too oily. We picked the lotus leaf bun instead because it was soft and fluffy, which felt perfect for the pre-dawn meal. There are many types of side dishes. You can add a little bit of everything, including cold dishes, pickled vegetables, and a poached egg. Since the meal is quite nutritious, many friends (dosti) choose to eat here.
3:50 a.m. After finishing our lotus leaf bun sandwich, we continued west along Miaohou Street. We bought a cured beef sandwich (la niurou jiamo) at An Zhiliang Cured Beef and Mutton Shop, then went across the street to Jia's Meatball Spicy Soup (rouwan hulatang) shop at the Sajinqiao intersection to have a bowl of meatball spicy soup. The cured beef at An Zhiliang's is quite fragrant, but it is a little salty, so you need to drink plenty of water.
During Ramadan, many meatball and spicy pepper soup (hulatang) shops in the Muslim Quarter sell pre-dawn meals, but the pepper flavor is really strong. Drinking it before starting the fast isn't as comfortable as having rice porridge.
At 5:50 a.m., I prayed the dawn prayer (namaz) at Daxuexi Alley Mosque. Daxuexi Alley Mosque, also known as the West Great Mosque, was rebuilt in 1384 (the 17th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty) by Minister of War Tie Xuan, who was granted the name for the mosque by the emperor. It was renovated in 1413 (the 11th year of the Yongle reign) and again during the Kangxi and Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty. The main prayer hall preserves precious Ming and Qing dynasty paintings featuring exquisite calligraphy. This style shares the same roots as the traditional mosque paintings and calligraphy of the Salar people in Xunhua, Qinghai.
At noon, I prayed the Friday prayer (Jumu'ah) at Huajue Alley Great Mosque. Huajue Alley Great Mosque, also known as the East Great Mosque, was renovated many times during the Song and Yuan dynasties. The main hall was rebuilt in 1455 (the 6th year of the Jingtai reign of the Ming Dynasty). It underwent large-scale expansions in the early Jiajing years and again in the 34th year of the Wanli reign. By the Qianlong period, it was reduced from two courtyards to just the southern section, gradually forming the current layout of five deep courtyards.
The mihrab inside the main prayer hall. In his book Chinese Islamic Architecture, Liu Zhiping says: The rear kiln hall of the main prayer hall is the most beautifully crafted. The walls are entirely paneled with wood, and the golden pillars are used to create door hoods and hanging columns, making the mihrab area look even more magnificent. All the wooden surfaces feature bold and powerful shallow carvings. Because animal patterns are not allowed as decorations inside an Islamic prayer hall, the entire wall is covered in magnificent and sturdy plant and flower designs. These types of patterns are also common on the brick carvings of other mosques. Its magnificent atmosphere has opened up a new direction for decorative patterns in our country. Not using animal decorations limited the carving designs in the mosque, but it also encouraged the development of plant, geometric, and calligraphic patterns, which helped shape the unique style of Islamic architectural design.
Inside the main hall, you can see a painting of Mecca (Tianfang tu) that shows images of the two holy sites. The lotus vine patterns surrounding the painting of Mecca all contain Arabic calligraphy, and the lotus pedestal below has a very traditional Chinese style.
Summary: Halal Travel Guide: Xi'an Ramadan - Mosques, Gongbei and Hui Muslim Life (Part 1) is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear, natural English. The account focuses on Xi'an Ramadan, Gongbei, Hui Muslims while preserving the names, places, food, photos, and historical details from the Chinese source.
I have been to Xi'an many times, but this is my first time visiting during Ramadan. I have always heard that the Ramadan atmosphere in Xi'an is special. Many shops adjust their hours to serve pre-dawn meals (suhoor), and the mosques are very lively when it is time to break the fast (iftar). I used the Qingming holiday to experience it for myself.
April 4th
We stayed at a guesthouse run by a friend (dosti) on Hongbu Street in the Muslim Quarter, which made getting around very easy.
At 3:00 a.m., we wandered over to Miaohou Street. Miaohou Street has the most options for pre-dawn meals in the Muslim Quarter. We saw offal soup (zagan tang), spicy soup (hula tang), steamed rice cake (zenggao), crumbled flatbread in soup (paomo), meat pies (rou hezi), and much more.
At 3:20 a.m., we ate crumbled flatbread in soup (paomo) at Yibaolou on Miaohou Street. Yibaolou and Sanyicheng are two of the most popular spots in the Xi'an Muslim Quarter for pre-dawn meals.
It takes twenty minutes to break the flatbread (mo) into pieces. They put the meat in the pot right at the door, and the open kitchen is very clean. Besides meat and glass noodles (fensi), their soaked flatbread (paomo) also includes dried bean curd sticks (fuzhu) and pressed tofu (dougan). During Ramadan, they even give out free fried eggs and pickles. The paomo tastes great overall, but it is a little bit oily. Their chili sauce is salty, so be careful not to add too much or you will get thirsty.
Zainab had the vegetable stew (huicai), which is made by adding greens, tomatoes, and wood ear mushrooms to the meat broth used for paomo. The soup is thicker than a regular vegetable stew.
At 5:30 in the morning, the call to prayer (adhan) at the Xiaopiyuan North Mosque was melodic and moving.
The Xiaopiyuan North Mosque was built by imperial order in 1312 (the first year of the Huangqing era of the Yuan Dynasty) and renovated in 1614 (the 42nd year of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty). Inside the prayer hall, the brackets (dougong) extend outward and layer inward. The center features a four-cornered, multi-eaved, pointed roof known as the 'Eight Trigrams Hanging Roof' (bagua xuanding). It is built using a connected, interlocking style and is a very precious piece of architectural art.
During the day, the Muslim Quarter (Huifang) belongs to the tourists.
At noon, I went to Hujiagou in Xianyang to visit the grave of Master Hu Dengzhou. Hu Dengzhou (1522–1597) was the founder of the scripture hall education (jingtang jiaoyu) system in Ming Dynasty China. He studied Confucianism and Islamic scripture from a young age. Later, he created a method to teach religious classics in Chinese, which laid the foundation for the integration of Islam and Confucianism (Yi-Ru huitong). Master Hu also combined Islamic scripture education with traditional Chinese private school (sishu) education to start the scripture hall education system. Through the efforts of Master Hu and his students over several generations, scripture hall education spread everywhere. It trained many excellent teachers and developed systems like the Shandong school, the Jinling school, and the Shaanxi school.
After Master Hu passed away (guizhen), he was originally buried by the Wei River. In 1662, the first year of the Kangxi reign, flooding from the river threatened the grave, so it was moved next to the Great Mosque (Qingzhen Dasi) in Weichengli. Weichengli is a fertile area stretching over ten kilometers north of the Wei River, northeast of Xianyang. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was a settlement for Hui Muslims. Three mosques were built there, and the largest one is the Weichengli Great Mosque next to Master Hu's grave.
Two stone tablets stand by Master Hu's grave. One is the 1673 record of the grave relocation written by Ma Si, and the other is the 1718 record of the grave's renovation written by Ma Fengzhu. Both are valuable historical documents about Master Hu.
The Monument for the Relocation of Hu Dengzhou's Grave was written by Ma Si Baba, a junior student of Hu Taishi Baba, after he learned in Wuhan that the master's grave had been moved. Before he died, he asked for the text to be carved onto a stone to keep it safe. The stone is still kept inside the tomb pavilion of Ma Si Baba in Wuhan. The Record of Building the Ancestral Tomb of Hu Taishi was originally placed next to the grave of Hu Taishi Baba. Two elders from Xi'an, Ma Yu and Li Fengming, visited the grave of Ma Si Baba in Wuhan and saw the Monument for the Relocation of Hu Dengzhou's Grave. They translated the meaning of the Arabic text on that monument into Chinese and set up this new stone. Feng Zenglie, a teacher at Northwest University at the time, copied the text in 1956. After hearing that the original stone was destroyed, he organized and published the text in 1981, which caused a great stir in the academic community.
The couple who guard the grave of Taishi Baba are local believers (dost). They grow all kinds of vegetables in the yard and have even picked some fresh Chinese toon (xiangchun) sprouts that smell wonderful. They also planted some bougainvillea (sanjiaomei) in the vegetable patch, and the purple flowers look very beautiful.
There are over a dozen dairy goats in the yard, including some new lambs and some born last year. This makes it very convenient for people who come to perform a religious sacrifice (niatie). The grass the goats eat is also grown by the couple, who cleared a large piece of land for it.
In the afternoon, I returned to the Hui Muslim quarter and waited for the fast-breaking (iftar) at the Dapiyuan Mosque. Dapiyuan Mosque was built in 1411 (the ninth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty) under the leadership of the famous early Ming imam Ma Daozhen, who spent five years raising funds for it. It was renovated during the Jiajing reign and repaired twice during the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns.
When breaking the fast, people are busy eating snacks like cake, dates (yezao), and tea.
After the sunset prayer (maghrib), we ate the fast-breaking meal, which included zucchini, cold skin noodles (liangpi), stir-fried meat, steamed eggs, mung bean porridge, and steamed buns (momo). There were many people, and the atmosphere was great.
After the meal, we performed the night prayer (tarawih). The calligraphy and paintings on the kiln-style hall (yaodian) of the mosque are also very old.
After the tarawih prayer, Zainab asked me to have some eight-treasure porridge at Xiao Jia Eight-Treasure Porridge shop near the entrance of the Dapiyuan women's mosque. The shop is hidden in the alley, so most people do not notice it. Besides eight-treasure porridge, they also serve potstickers (guotie) and cold skin noodles (liangpi). The porridge is packed with ingredients, and the environment is quite nice. After finishing the porridge, we had some sour plum drink (suanmeitang) on the street. The freshly brewed sour plum drink (suanmeitang) sold on the streets of the Muslim Quarter is very tart and perfect for quenching thirst during Ramadan.
April 5.
At 3:30 a.m., we had a lotus leaf bun sandwich (heye bing jiacai) with red bean porridge at Ma's Family restaurant on Miaohou Street in the Muslim Quarter. Many people were buying their pre-dawn meal (suhoor) there. Lots of customers chose the fried pancake sandwich (youbing jiacai), but we found the pancake a bit too oily. We picked the lotus leaf bun instead because it was soft and fluffy, which felt perfect for the pre-dawn meal. There are many types of side dishes. You can add a little bit of everything, including cold dishes, pickled vegetables, and a poached egg. Since the meal is quite nutritious, many friends (dosti) choose to eat here.
3:50 a.m. After finishing our lotus leaf bun sandwich, we continued west along Miaohou Street. We bought a cured beef sandwich (la niurou jiamo) at An Zhiliang Cured Beef and Mutton Shop, then went across the street to Jia's Meatball Spicy Soup (rouwan hulatang) shop at the Sajinqiao intersection to have a bowl of meatball spicy soup. The cured beef at An Zhiliang's is quite fragrant, but it is a little salty, so you need to drink plenty of water.
During Ramadan, many meatball and spicy pepper soup (hulatang) shops in the Muslim Quarter sell pre-dawn meals, but the pepper flavor is really strong. Drinking it before starting the fast isn't as comfortable as having rice porridge.
At 5:50 a.m., I prayed the dawn prayer (namaz) at Daxuexi Alley Mosque. Daxuexi Alley Mosque, also known as the West Great Mosque, was rebuilt in 1384 (the 17th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty) by Minister of War Tie Xuan, who was granted the name for the mosque by the emperor. It was renovated in 1413 (the 11th year of the Yongle reign) and again during the Kangxi and Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty. The main prayer hall preserves precious Ming and Qing dynasty paintings featuring exquisite calligraphy. This style shares the same roots as the traditional mosque paintings and calligraphy of the Salar people in Xunhua, Qinghai.
At noon, I prayed the Friday prayer (Jumu'ah) at Huajue Alley Great Mosque. Huajue Alley Great Mosque, also known as the East Great Mosque, was renovated many times during the Song and Yuan dynasties. The main hall was rebuilt in 1455 (the 6th year of the Jingtai reign of the Ming Dynasty). It underwent large-scale expansions in the early Jiajing years and again in the 34th year of the Wanli reign. By the Qianlong period, it was reduced from two courtyards to just the southern section, gradually forming the current layout of five deep courtyards.
The mihrab inside the main prayer hall. In his book Chinese Islamic Architecture, Liu Zhiping says: The rear kiln hall of the main prayer hall is the most beautifully crafted. The walls are entirely paneled with wood, and the golden pillars are used to create door hoods and hanging columns, making the mihrab area look even more magnificent. All the wooden surfaces feature bold and powerful shallow carvings. Because animal patterns are not allowed as decorations inside an Islamic prayer hall, the entire wall is covered in magnificent and sturdy plant and flower designs. These types of patterns are also common on the brick carvings of other mosques. Its magnificent atmosphere has opened up a new direction for decorative patterns in our country. Not using animal decorations limited the carving designs in the mosque, but it also encouraged the development of plant, geometric, and calligraphic patterns, which helped shape the unique style of Islamic architectural design.
Inside the main hall, you can see a painting of Mecca (Tianfang tu) that shows images of the two holy sites. The lotus vine patterns surrounding the painting of Mecca all contain Arabic calligraphy, and the lotus pedestal below has a very traditional Chinese style.
