China Mosque Travel Guide Beijing Miyun: Reservoir Mosques, Hui Villages and Muslim Heritage (Part 1)
Reposted from the web
Summary: China Mosque Travel Guide Beijing Miyun: Reservoir Mosques, Hui Villages and Muslim Heritage (Part 1) is presented here as a clear Muslim travel account, beginning with this scene: The weather in Beijing was perfect in late August. I drove northeast to Miyun to visit Hui Muslim communities in the Miyun urban area, Mujia Yu, Gubeikou, and Taishitun. The account keeps its focus on Miyun Mosques, Beijing Muslim Travel, Hui Villages while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source.
The weather in Beijing was perfect in late August. I drove northeast to Miyun to visit Hui Muslim communities in the Miyun urban area, Mujia Yu, Gubeikou, and Taishitun. I tasted local halal food and learned about the history of the local Hui Muslims.
Miyun urban area
I drove to the Miyun urban area after work and arrived at Runge Sheng on Gulou South Street in the evening. The restaurant was recently renovated this year and has a great atmosphere. I ordered steamed tofu (kaibao doufu) and red-steamed beef. The tofu is steamed and then mixed with various seasonings. Adding chive flower sauce really makes it flavorful! The red-steamed beef had a great texture. It should be one of the eight classic Hui Muslim bowls (badawan), though Zainab and my father-in-law both said it was a bit salty. I guess I will be getting used to the salty taste of traditional Beijing suburban dishes for the next few days, haha.
The next morning, I ate old-broth lamb offal soup (laotang yangza), beef dumpling soup (niurou yuanbao tang), and freshly fried meat flatbread (rou shaobing) at Changshun Zhai on Nangen Street in Miyun. The lamb offal was delicious, but my father-in-law and Zainab still could not get used to the salty taste of the traditional suburban food. The flatbread was fried until crispy, and the aroma of the sesame really came through. The dumpling soup with its thin skin and large filling was also very tasty.
I bought radish-filled buns (xian bobo) at Guangju Zhai in front of the Miyun Mosque, and bought old-fashioned mooncakes with chestnut, five-nut, and black sesame fillings at Dongfang Zhenshun Bakery. Everything was delicious. Most of the halal signs here in Miyun use Persian blue, which is now consistent with the style outside the Great Wall.
The Miyun Chengguan Mosque was first built during the Qing Dynasty and was relocated and rebuilt in 2006.
I went to visit the Rose Garden in Miyun in the morning.
I picked Gala apples and crabapples at the Fusi Apple Manor in Miyun.
I think the Miyun Baihe Urban Forest Park in the evening is just as good as the Olympic Forest Park! It is mainly very quiet.
Mujia Yu
Mujia Yu Village, now called North Mujia Yu Hui Muslim Village, is located northeast of the Miyun urban area and south of the Miyun Reservoir. Historically, it was on the trade route from Gubeikou and the ancient Shixia City to the Miyun urban area. The Hui Muslims with the surname Mu came from Mujia Zhuang (today's Muncun) in Tianjin. They moved to Miyun during the Qianlong reign, and it has been over two hundred years since then.
According to the Mu Family Genealogy, the Mu ancestor was named Mu Chonghe. His ancestral home was Shayang Alley in Mu Jiazhai, Hangzhou. After being captured in the early Ming Dynasty, he moved to Guyi Alley inside Shuixi Gate in Nanjing. In 1404 (the second year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty), Mu Chonghe followed the Prince of Yan north. He transported imperial grain by canal boat to Tongzhou. On his return, he settled twelve miles north of Tianjin Wei and founded Mujia Zhuang, which was the earliest Hui Muslim village in Tianjin.
In 1771 (the 36th year of the Qianlong reign), Mu Chonghe's twelfth-generation grandson, Mu Guobao, was arrested for injuring someone while trying to stand up for justice at a market. He was rescued by his younger brother while being escorted. The two brothers fled Tianjin and came to Mengjiayu (today's South Mujia Yu Village) in Miyun to work. In less than ten years, they built houses, bought land, married, and had children, founding Mujia Yu. Mu Guobao was the first ancestor to move to Mujia Yu.
According to research by local scholar Cao Rongxin, Mujiayu was originally home to only the Mu family. Later, Hui Muslims with the surname Ha settled here after fleeing famine, followed by three Han Chinese families named Wang, Shi, and Hao who settled here while working as long-term laborers for the Mu family. When the Miyun Reservoir was built in 1958, the ancient city of Shixia was submerged. Hui Muslim families named Li, Cao, Ma, and Zhang from the ancient city, along with the Mu family from the former Qianchao Douzhuang (whose original ancestor was the younger brother of Mu Guobao), all moved to Mujiayu, eventually forming the village's current size.
Mu Chaoyu, the son of Mujiayu's original ancestor Mu Guobao, built the Mujiayu mosque on a small hill by the river east of the village in his later years. In 1946, the Mujiayu mosque was seized by the armed landlord group known as the Huohui from West Mujiayu. It was destroyed in 1948 during the liberation of Miyun, and only two pine trees remain today.
After 1949, Mujiayu used compensation funds to build six rooms on the west side of the village. They originally planned to rebuild the main prayer hall, but the project failed due to road construction. Later, the rooms were occupied by a collective canteen and other units. It was not until 1991 that the mosque was finally rebuilt on the west side of the road in the west part of the village.
The chickens and cats at Mujiayu mosque.
We stayed at Songning Yuan Su, not far east of Mujiayu. The suite cost over 100 yuan a day, and it is less than a 10-minute drive from the North Mujiayu Hui Muslim village. There is a crabapple tree and a peach tree in the courtyard, the view outside the window is lush and green, and you can faintly see the Chao River.
In the evening, we ate stir-fried beef with mountain mushrooms, stir-fried tofu with wood ear mushrooms, deep-fried sharp-belly fish (qiaozui), and cornmeal flatbreads (tiebingzi) at the Shanshui Tianyuan Ethnic Restaurant in Mujiayu. A large iron pot of freshly made cornmeal flatbreads only cost 15 yuan, and we couldn't finish it at all. The deep-fried fish was very satisfying, but the portion was huge. In short, eating at a farmhouse restaurant means big portions and good value, which reminded me of eating in Northeast China, haha.
It is also worth mentioning that the Hui Muslim banquet known as the Eight Great Bowls (badawan) in Mujiayu has a long history. When the Miyun Reservoir was built in 1958, all residents of the Shixia ancient city in the submerged area were relocated. A group of Hui Muslims with the surname Li, who were skilled at making the Eight Great Bowls, moved to Mujiayu, which is how the current Mujiayu halal Eight Great Bowls came to be.
Back at the villa in the evening to watch the stars.
In the morning, we had tofu pudding (doufunao), soy milk, fried dough cakes (youbing), and meat-filled flatbreads (roushaobing) at the Hexingzhai Halal Restaurant in Mujiayu. They seem to be the only place in the North Mujiayu Hui Muslim village selling breakfast. Their homemade fresh chive flowers were especially delicious, and the meat-filled flatbreads were very flavorful.
We ate beef pancakes, beef casserole, mixed lamb liver, and stir-fried pumpkin at the Fuhua Zhengxing Folk Restaurant in Mujiayu. This was our first time at a Miyun farmhouse restaurant, so we didn't have experience and ordered too much at once, haha. The flaky beef pancake was delicious! The mixed lamb liver was also very tasty, but the beef used was a bit fatty and gristly; it would have been better if it were leaner. The owner was very welcoming. As soon as he saw Zainab was pregnant, he quickly ushered us into a quiet room inside to eat.
A halal farmhouse restaurant in Mujiayu called Kunanchun Folk Restaurant. We had fish head with flatbreads, which featured three jin of bighead carp served with freshly made homemade flatbreads, and we also ordered a dish of three types of mushrooms. We called ahead to ask for less salt and to have it stewed in advance, so we could eat as soon as we arrived. The reservoir fish wasn't as chewy as the rainbow trout we had last week, but it was a different kind of delicious. Everyone was very satisfied and still wanted more, saying we should eat a whole five or six-jin fish next time.
I enjoyed the view from the main dam of the Chaohe River at Miyun Reservoir, where villagers were also selling dates picked from the mountains.
After leaving the dam, I went to a nearby orchard to pick some early-ripening pears. They were incredibly juicy and very sweet!
Gubeikou
I traveled along the east bank of Miyun Reservoir, heading toward Gubeikou.
I visited the Gubeikou mosque again after four months, but the Hui Muslim gentleman who holds the key wasn't home, so I couldn't get inside. For a detailed introduction to the Gubeikou mosque, you can check my diary entry from the spring, 'Visiting the Ancient Mosque in Gubeikou'.
During the Kangxi reign, Gubeikou was a vital military stronghold for the Emperor's campaigns against the Dzungars. It was also a key stop on the imperial road for his northern hunting trips and inspections, making it very important. In the 32nd year of the Kangxi reign (1693), a military camp called Liulin Camp was established in the mountains west of the river in Gubeikou, and heavily guarded by troops. In the 34th year of the Kangxi reign (1695), a Hui Muslim officer named Ma Jinliang was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of Gubeikou in Zhili due to his outstanding military service. In the 42nd year of the Kangxi reign (1703), he was promoted to Regional Commander of Zhili. People called him 'Commander Ma the Hui Muslim,' and he was stationed in Hexi Village, Gubeikou. While in Gubeikou, Ma Jinliang oversaw the renovation of the Gubeikou mosque. The current mosque is basically the same size as it was after that Kangxi-era renovation.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, as the imperial road fell into disuse, Liulin Camp was disbanded in the 16th year of the Guangxu reign (1890), and Hexi Village gradually became quiet. After the 1960s, the Gubeikou mosque was taken over by the local brigade headquarters, and religious activities stopped. It was renovated in 2004 for the Olympics, but religious activities have not resumed to this day.
On the way, I found a small courtyard belonging to a Hui Muslim family in the village; the scenery was really nice. Most of the Hui Muslims in Gubeikou are descendants of the Qing Dynasty garrison, with surnames like Ma, Ha, Yang, Li, and Cao.
This century-old Hui Muslim house in Hexi Village belongs to a man named Ma. He said his family bought it from a Hui Muslim family named Yang over a hundred years ago. Because the walls are cracking, the owner said he plans to start renovations next year, so the original look of this century-old house might not be visible for much longer.
The image below is a map of the Gubeikou town market from 1938, divided into Hexi (west of the river) and Hedong (east of the river) by the Chaohe River.
Traveling from Hexi to Hedong, you find the only halal snack shop in Gubeikou. The owner is named Cao, and he is a local Hui Muslim from Gubeikou. The ancestors of the Cao family of Hui Muslims in North China were originally surnamed Li. Their ancestral home was in Erlanggang, Nanjing (which research suggests was a station for Semu people who surrendered to the Ming). During the Yongle reign, they followed the emperor to Beijing, but on the return trip, they stayed in Cangzhou due to illness and married into the Cao family, so their descendants changed their surname to Cao. The Cao family of Hui Muslims in Cangzhou later spread throughout North China, and one branch settled in Gubeikou during the Qing Dynasty.
Their shop is famous for selling sesame flatbread (shaobing) and lamb offal soup (yangza) in the morning, and they also serve lamb dumplings (yangrou jiaozi) and stir-fried pancakes (chaobing) at noon. It is just a small shop run by a husband and wife. Boss Cao looks a bit stern, but he is actually very friendly and chatted with me about the situation of the Hui Muslims in Gubeikou. He said that most of the Hui Muslims in Gubeikou have moved away now, and some of them have moved near the Miyun mosque.
Summary: China Mosque Travel Guide Beijing Miyun: Reservoir Mosques, Hui Villages and Muslim Heritage (Part 1) is presented here as a clear Muslim travel account, beginning with this scene: The weather in Beijing was perfect in late August. I drove northeast to Miyun to visit Hui Muslim communities in the Miyun urban area, Mujia Yu, Gubeikou, and Taishitun. The account keeps its focus on Miyun Mosques, Beijing Muslim Travel, Hui Villages while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source.
The weather in Beijing was perfect in late August. I drove northeast to Miyun to visit Hui Muslim communities in the Miyun urban area, Mujia Yu, Gubeikou, and Taishitun. I tasted local halal food and learned about the history of the local Hui Muslims.
Miyun urban area
I drove to the Miyun urban area after work and arrived at Runge Sheng on Gulou South Street in the evening. The restaurant was recently renovated this year and has a great atmosphere. I ordered steamed tofu (kaibao doufu) and red-steamed beef. The tofu is steamed and then mixed with various seasonings. Adding chive flower sauce really makes it flavorful! The red-steamed beef had a great texture. It should be one of the eight classic Hui Muslim bowls (badawan), though Zainab and my father-in-law both said it was a bit salty. I guess I will be getting used to the salty taste of traditional Beijing suburban dishes for the next few days, haha.
The next morning, I ate old-broth lamb offal soup (laotang yangza), beef dumpling soup (niurou yuanbao tang), and freshly fried meat flatbread (rou shaobing) at Changshun Zhai on Nangen Street in Miyun. The lamb offal was delicious, but my father-in-law and Zainab still could not get used to the salty taste of the traditional suburban food. The flatbread was fried until crispy, and the aroma of the sesame really came through. The dumpling soup with its thin skin and large filling was also very tasty.
I bought radish-filled buns (xian bobo) at Guangju Zhai in front of the Miyun Mosque, and bought old-fashioned mooncakes with chestnut, five-nut, and black sesame fillings at Dongfang Zhenshun Bakery. Everything was delicious. Most of the halal signs here in Miyun use Persian blue, which is now consistent with the style outside the Great Wall.
The Miyun Chengguan Mosque was first built during the Qing Dynasty and was relocated and rebuilt in 2006.
I went to visit the Rose Garden in Miyun in the morning.
I picked Gala apples and crabapples at the Fusi Apple Manor in Miyun.
I think the Miyun Baihe Urban Forest Park in the evening is just as good as the Olympic Forest Park! It is mainly very quiet.
Mujia Yu
Mujia Yu Village, now called North Mujia Yu Hui Muslim Village, is located northeast of the Miyun urban area and south of the Miyun Reservoir. Historically, it was on the trade route from Gubeikou and the ancient Shixia City to the Miyun urban area. The Hui Muslims with the surname Mu came from Mujia Zhuang (today's Muncun) in Tianjin. They moved to Miyun during the Qianlong reign, and it has been over two hundred years since then.
According to the Mu Family Genealogy, the Mu ancestor was named Mu Chonghe. His ancestral home was Shayang Alley in Mu Jiazhai, Hangzhou. After being captured in the early Ming Dynasty, he moved to Guyi Alley inside Shuixi Gate in Nanjing. In 1404 (the second year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty), Mu Chonghe followed the Prince of Yan north. He transported imperial grain by canal boat to Tongzhou. On his return, he settled twelve miles north of Tianjin Wei and founded Mujia Zhuang, which was the earliest Hui Muslim village in Tianjin.
In 1771 (the 36th year of the Qianlong reign), Mu Chonghe's twelfth-generation grandson, Mu Guobao, was arrested for injuring someone while trying to stand up for justice at a market. He was rescued by his younger brother while being escorted. The two brothers fled Tianjin and came to Mengjiayu (today's South Mujia Yu Village) in Miyun to work. In less than ten years, they built houses, bought land, married, and had children, founding Mujia Yu. Mu Guobao was the first ancestor to move to Mujia Yu.
According to research by local scholar Cao Rongxin, Mujiayu was originally home to only the Mu family. Later, Hui Muslims with the surname Ha settled here after fleeing famine, followed by three Han Chinese families named Wang, Shi, and Hao who settled here while working as long-term laborers for the Mu family. When the Miyun Reservoir was built in 1958, the ancient city of Shixia was submerged. Hui Muslim families named Li, Cao, Ma, and Zhang from the ancient city, along with the Mu family from the former Qianchao Douzhuang (whose original ancestor was the younger brother of Mu Guobao), all moved to Mujiayu, eventually forming the village's current size.
Mu Chaoyu, the son of Mujiayu's original ancestor Mu Guobao, built the Mujiayu mosque on a small hill by the river east of the village in his later years. In 1946, the Mujiayu mosque was seized by the armed landlord group known as the Huohui from West Mujiayu. It was destroyed in 1948 during the liberation of Miyun, and only two pine trees remain today.
After 1949, Mujiayu used compensation funds to build six rooms on the west side of the village. They originally planned to rebuild the main prayer hall, but the project failed due to road construction. Later, the rooms were occupied by a collective canteen and other units. It was not until 1991 that the mosque was finally rebuilt on the west side of the road in the west part of the village.
The chickens and cats at Mujiayu mosque.
We stayed at Songning Yuan Su, not far east of Mujiayu. The suite cost over 100 yuan a day, and it is less than a 10-minute drive from the North Mujiayu Hui Muslim village. There is a crabapple tree and a peach tree in the courtyard, the view outside the window is lush and green, and you can faintly see the Chao River.
In the evening, we ate stir-fried beef with mountain mushrooms, stir-fried tofu with wood ear mushrooms, deep-fried sharp-belly fish (qiaozui), and cornmeal flatbreads (tiebingzi) at the Shanshui Tianyuan Ethnic Restaurant in Mujiayu. A large iron pot of freshly made cornmeal flatbreads only cost 15 yuan, and we couldn't finish it at all. The deep-fried fish was very satisfying, but the portion was huge. In short, eating at a farmhouse restaurant means big portions and good value, which reminded me of eating in Northeast China, haha.
It is also worth mentioning that the Hui Muslim banquet known as the Eight Great Bowls (badawan) in Mujiayu has a long history. When the Miyun Reservoir was built in 1958, all residents of the Shixia ancient city in the submerged area were relocated. A group of Hui Muslims with the surname Li, who were skilled at making the Eight Great Bowls, moved to Mujiayu, which is how the current Mujiayu halal Eight Great Bowls came to be.
Back at the villa in the evening to watch the stars.
In the morning, we had tofu pudding (doufunao), soy milk, fried dough cakes (youbing), and meat-filled flatbreads (roushaobing) at the Hexingzhai Halal Restaurant in Mujiayu. They seem to be the only place in the North Mujiayu Hui Muslim village selling breakfast. Their homemade fresh chive flowers were especially delicious, and the meat-filled flatbreads were very flavorful.
We ate beef pancakes, beef casserole, mixed lamb liver, and stir-fried pumpkin at the Fuhua Zhengxing Folk Restaurant in Mujiayu. This was our first time at a Miyun farmhouse restaurant, so we didn't have experience and ordered too much at once, haha. The flaky beef pancake was delicious! The mixed lamb liver was also very tasty, but the beef used was a bit fatty and gristly; it would have been better if it were leaner. The owner was very welcoming. As soon as he saw Zainab was pregnant, he quickly ushered us into a quiet room inside to eat.
A halal farmhouse restaurant in Mujiayu called Kunanchun Folk Restaurant. We had fish head with flatbreads, which featured three jin of bighead carp served with freshly made homemade flatbreads, and we also ordered a dish of three types of mushrooms. We called ahead to ask for less salt and to have it stewed in advance, so we could eat as soon as we arrived. The reservoir fish wasn't as chewy as the rainbow trout we had last week, but it was a different kind of delicious. Everyone was very satisfied and still wanted more, saying we should eat a whole five or six-jin fish next time.
I enjoyed the view from the main dam of the Chaohe River at Miyun Reservoir, where villagers were also selling dates picked from the mountains.
After leaving the dam, I went to a nearby orchard to pick some early-ripening pears. They were incredibly juicy and very sweet!
Gubeikou
I traveled along the east bank of Miyun Reservoir, heading toward Gubeikou.
I visited the Gubeikou mosque again after four months, but the Hui Muslim gentleman who holds the key wasn't home, so I couldn't get inside. For a detailed introduction to the Gubeikou mosque, you can check my diary entry from the spring, 'Visiting the Ancient Mosque in Gubeikou'.
During the Kangxi reign, Gubeikou was a vital military stronghold for the Emperor's campaigns against the Dzungars. It was also a key stop on the imperial road for his northern hunting trips and inspections, making it very important. In the 32nd year of the Kangxi reign (1693), a military camp called Liulin Camp was established in the mountains west of the river in Gubeikou, and heavily guarded by troops. In the 34th year of the Kangxi reign (1695), a Hui Muslim officer named Ma Jinliang was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of Gubeikou in Zhili due to his outstanding military service. In the 42nd year of the Kangxi reign (1703), he was promoted to Regional Commander of Zhili. People called him 'Commander Ma the Hui Muslim,' and he was stationed in Hexi Village, Gubeikou. While in Gubeikou, Ma Jinliang oversaw the renovation of the Gubeikou mosque. The current mosque is basically the same size as it was after that Kangxi-era renovation.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, as the imperial road fell into disuse, Liulin Camp was disbanded in the 16th year of the Guangxu reign (1890), and Hexi Village gradually became quiet. After the 1960s, the Gubeikou mosque was taken over by the local brigade headquarters, and religious activities stopped. It was renovated in 2004 for the Olympics, but religious activities have not resumed to this day.
On the way, I found a small courtyard belonging to a Hui Muslim family in the village; the scenery was really nice. Most of the Hui Muslims in Gubeikou are descendants of the Qing Dynasty garrison, with surnames like Ma, Ha, Yang, Li, and Cao.
This century-old Hui Muslim house in Hexi Village belongs to a man named Ma. He said his family bought it from a Hui Muslim family named Yang over a hundred years ago. Because the walls are cracking, the owner said he plans to start renovations next year, so the original look of this century-old house might not be visible for much longer.
The image below is a map of the Gubeikou town market from 1938, divided into Hexi (west of the river) and Hedong (east of the river) by the Chaohe River.
Traveling from Hexi to Hedong, you find the only halal snack shop in Gubeikou. The owner is named Cao, and he is a local Hui Muslim from Gubeikou. The ancestors of the Cao family of Hui Muslims in North China were originally surnamed Li. Their ancestral home was in Erlanggang, Nanjing (which research suggests was a station for Semu people who surrendered to the Ming). During the Yongle reign, they followed the emperor to Beijing, but on the return trip, they stayed in Cangzhou due to illness and married into the Cao family, so their descendants changed their surname to Cao. The Cao family of Hui Muslims in Cangzhou later spread throughout North China, and one branch settled in Gubeikou during the Qing Dynasty.
Their shop is famous for selling sesame flatbread (shaobing) and lamb offal soup (yangza) in the morning, and they also serve lamb dumplings (yangrou jiaozi) and stir-fried pancakes (chaobing) at noon. It is just a small shop run by a husband and wife. Boss Cao looks a bit stern, but he is actually very friendly and chatted with me about the situation of the Hui Muslims in Gubeikou. He said that most of the Hui Muslims in Gubeikou have moved away now, and some of them have moved near the Miyun mosque.
