Reposted from the web

Summary: This Tianjin halal food guide follows an autumn eating route through Syrian dishes, giant river prawns, yellow broth pulled noodles, Turkish food, and Xinjiang fresh milk ice cream. It keeps the original restaurant details, dishes, photos, and food notes for readers planning Muslim-friendly meals in Tianjin.

Two months later, we went back to Tianjin for a weekend trip with our kids. We arrived in Tianjin on Saturday at noon and headed straight to the Al-Andalus restaurant in the Nankai District Sunac Center for some Levantine food. The owner is Syrian. Al-Andalus was the name Arabs used for the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. In the 8th century, under the Umayyad dynasty, Al-Andalus was a famous center for economy, culture, academics, and education, serving as an important bridge for cultural and scientific exchange between the East and the West.

We ordered the four-person feast set, which included lentil soup, cream of mushroom soup, a hummus trio, lamb samosas (samosa), chicken wraps (shawarma), a four-season pizza, a mixed grill platter, black tea, and a crispy salad. We also ordered yogurt separately. Overall, the food was very authentic. It offers better value than the Arab restaurants in Beijing, and you don't have to wait in line. Their yogurt was especially good, with a rich, tangy flavor that beats many of the Arab restaurants in Beijing. The only downside was that the samosa dough was a bit thick, more like the South Asian version than the thin-crust Levantine style.

























After lunch, we went to the Tianjin Museum, which is currently hosting an exhibition of historical artifacts from the National Museum of Kazakhstan. See diary: [Exhibition Visit] Tianjin Museum's Kazakhstan National Museum Historical Artifacts Exhibition.



The Tianjin Museum displays exquisite brick carvings by the Hui Muslim families known as the 'Fancy Work Ma Family' (Huahuo Majia) and 'Brick Carver Liu' (Kezhuan Liu) from the Northwest Corner. See diary: [Exhibition Visit] Exquisite brick carvings by Hui Muslim artisans 'Huahuomajia' and 'Kezhuanliu' in the Northwest Corner of Tianjin.



If you are a friend (dosti) from Beijing and are tired of the same old restaurants, a trip to Tianjin will definitely open your eyes. On this trip to Tianjin, we discovered a restaurant called Xiju that specializes in giant river prawns (luoshixia). It is located on Fuxing Road, just west of the Northwest Corner. It is run by local Hui Muslims and is very busy at night.

Their signature dish is a two-pound platter of giant river prawns, which you can get spicy or with garlic sauce. Giant river prawns are freshwater prawns originally from Malaysia in Southeast Asia. They are large and have plump, tender meat, but the texture isn't as firm as sea prawns, and the prawn flavor isn't as intense. It is similar to the difference between freshwater fish and sea fish. We ordered the garlic giant river prawns. You can add noodles to the sauce, which my son loved. He couldn't stop eating them, from start to finish, and he was the one at our table who enjoyed the meal the most.

Their Chaoshan seafood porridge was also excellent. Besides having plenty of prawns, it was packed with other seafood, making the flavor very rich.

They also have various barbecue items. We ordered squid, flounder, pineapple beef skewers, cheese bread slices, charcoal-grilled beef short ribs, and beef kimchi cheese rolls. Everything tasted great, especially the flounder, which had a wonderful texture and flavor.

Their sizzling sea bass pot (zhuzhu luyu bao) was also a hit with everyone. The sea bass was very fresh, and the garlic-clove-shaped meat had a great texture.

Their fried chicken racks are sweet and sour, making them a perfect snack that gets addictive the more you eat.



















On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at Shunfa Lamian and Zhensucheng in the Xiaohaidi area of the Hexi District. Xiaohaidi is a lively residential area in the south of Tianjin with plenty of halal snacks. Shunfa Lamian is a noodle shop that has been open for over twenty years, specializing in yellow broth pulled noodles (lamian) and braised noodles (banmian). Zhensucheng is a breakfast shop that opened in 1979, specializing in crispy crepe strips in savory sauce (guobacai). Both of these shops are now franchises. The one in Xiaohaidi joined both brands, so now you can have yellow broth pulled noodles (huangtang lamian) and traditional breakfast at the same time in the morning.

We ordered yellow broth pulled noodles, water caltrop soup (lingjiao tang), flour tea (miancha), and beef pie (niurou bing). It was my first time having yellow broth pulled noodles. The yellow curry powder makes the flavor very rich, and I think it tastes even more satisfying than the clear broth version. Their water caltrop soup and flour tea both taste good, and Suleiman especially likes their flour tea. However, their beef pie has a bit too little filling. I noticed many people at the neighboring tables were eating flatbread rolls with fried fritters (dabing juanquan).













After eating at so many good restaurants in Tianjin, I finally hit a dud this time. On Sunday at noon, we went to the Galata Turkish Restaurant in Hengji Plaza, Hexi District. First of all, their tables are tiny. We ordered a meal for four, and it couldn't even fit on the table. Secondly, it is not authentic! We have eaten at so many Turkish restaurants in Beijing, Yiwu, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou, and they were all very authentic, whether run by Turkish or Azerbaijani people. This is the first time we have eaten at an inauthentic one; it is nothing like what we ate in Turkey.

Their potatoes and roasted chicken were covered in thick layers of salad dressing and ketchup. It felt just like fast food sold at a temple fair, which doesn't fit the Mediterranean diet of Turkey that focuses on spices. Also, the grilled meat was not good. Some parts were dry, and some were salty. The grill chef's skills need improvement. The grilled meat was served with pilaf (zhuafan) made with domestic short-grain rice. I suspect the chef is our fellow countryman from Xinjiang.

They do have one big advantage, which is that it is cheap! The price is about half of what you would pay at a Turkish restaurant in Beijing, so you get what you pay for. Their milk pudding and Turkish coffee also taste good. The milk pudding is not sweet, and it is quite pleasant to have with coffee. It is just that they served the coffee with a candy ball that children often eat, which is also a bad match. They should at least serve it with Turkish delight or even a piece of chocolate.













After leaving Hengji Plaza, we went to the Tatami Xinjiang Restaurant at the entrance to pack some diced noodle stir-fry (dingding chaomian) for Suleiman to eat in the evening. Their decor is quite good and very Xinjiang-style. The waiter who served us was Uyghur, and the chefs in the kitchen were all Hui Muslims. It is an open kitchen, and the chefs have real skill. We specifically asked for it to be made for a child, and the diced noodle stir-fry was indeed very suitable. Suleiman loved it. They also sell fresh milk ice cream from Tacheng, and I bought one that tasted quite good.



















I just remembered that I can add locations to my official account posts, so I will also add locations for the Tianjin restaurants recommended in previous issues.

Between the mountains and the sea: from Huairou farmhouses to coastal Western restaurants.

Haishiwan Halal Western Restaurant.

Eating Halal Western food at Haishiwan on Binjiang Road in Tianjin. Overall, their dish names and plating are quite fancy and look great in photos, but the actual taste is average, similar to fast food in a shopping mall.

The best thing they have is probably the avocado salad, which is very healthy. The tuna salad is more like a simple home-style mixed vegetable dish. The seafood fried rice and beef fried rice are both soy sauce-based, which feels more suited to the tastes of the Shandong cuisine region. The seafood pizza is plated very beautifully, but the pizza base itself is very average, just like the taste of a cheap fast-food chain. They also have various drinks with names I don't recognize, which are just sparkling water mixed with syrup. The fog coffee is great for photos, but the coffee itself is also very average.

Nuobona Halal Western Restaurant.

Nuobona Halal Western Restaurant at the 80 Food Plaza in TEDA, Tianjin, is definitely the best Halal Western food I have ever eaten! The taste is far better than the ones in downtown Tianjin.

Muyi Chinese Restaurant, Nuobona Western Restaurant, and the Western bakery on the first floor in Taifeng are all part of the Yisilai Mu Restaurant founded in 1994, and their Halal license number is Binhai 001. We have eaten at Muyi before; it is creative Chinese food with many dishes they invented themselves, and the taste is excellent. This time we tried their Western food and still had nothing but praise. Their environment is also very good, and they have a special area for children to play, which is very thoughtful.

We ordered charcoal-grilled baby lobster and creamy lobster soup served two ways, French escargot, British fish and chips, baked potato skins, golden pillow durian pizza, lasagna, tiramisu, non-alcoholic mojito, dirty milk, and rose soda, and we also ordered a kids' meal for Suleiman (spaghetti, pumpkin soup, french fries, grilled chicken wings, and fruit salad). The lobster is very tender, and the creamy lobster soup is rich and very fragrant. This was my first time eating baked escargot; the texture is very chewy and bouncy, and the various spices are added perfectly. It was my first time eating British-style fried fish, though it didn't come with french fries. The way they make it is very different from the common cod cakes in China; the fish meat is ground very finely, and the texture is very moist.

Taking kids out to eat in Tianjin: Yemeni food, Algerian desserts, rice noodle rolls (changfen), Japanese food, and water caltrop soup.

Socotra Yemeni Restaurant.

Many Yemeni restaurants have opened in Guangzhou and Yiwu, but Beijing's Arab restaurants are still mostly Levantine style. If you want a Yemeni meal, you have to take an intercity train to Tianjin.

Socotra is Socotra Island in the Arabian Sea, southeast of Yemen. It was called Sugudala in the Ming Dynasty's Zheng He Navigation Map. Socotra Island was listed as a World Natural Heritage site in 2008. The island is most famous for its dragon blood trees. The Socotra restaurant's logo is a dragon blood tree, and there are photos of the trees hanging in the shop.

We ordered the signature soup, chicken lentil soup, lamb Zurbian rice, Mushakkal stir-fried vegetables, Fahsa beef stew, banana mango juice, and Khubz flatbread. Zurbian rice is a bit like Indian Biryani rice, as both are stir-fried with various spices. Their lamb is roasted and smells great, but we found the rice a bit dry. There are also small bone fragments inside, so be careful not to let children eat it.

When you go to a Yemeni restaurant, you must try the classic Yemeni dish, Fahsa beef stew. Fahsa is usually made with lamb, but this place uses beef. When they make it, they stew the meat until it is very tender. It starts in a large vat and is then moved to a small pot to continue stewing. Besides ginger, garlic, and cumin, they add a spice called fenugreek (Hulbah) when stewing the meat. Fenugreek is actually what people in Northwest China often call fragrant beans (kudou). People in the Northwest dry the leaves of the fenugreek plant and grind them into powder to steam buns, while Yemenis grind the seeds to stew meat. Fenugreek seeds expand when they meet water and easily foam up when stirred in a bowl.

The classic pairing for Fahsa stew is Mulawah Yemeni flatbread, but this place requires you to order it in advance. You can only get Khubz flatbread if you walk in. Khubz flatbread is actually the same as the pita bread in Levantine cuisine. The version they make is quite hard, and to be honest, it is not very tasty.

Qianmu Halal Japanese Cuisine

There are no longer any halal Japanese restaurants in Beijing, so you have to go to Tianjin for this. This place is very popular, and it is hard to get a seat without booking in advance. When we went after eight o'clock, they had even sold out of rice, so we had to go to the ramen shop across the street to buy some.

We ordered tempura udon, sukiyaki, eel rice, a grilled platter, cod roe potato gratin, cheese-baked crab shell, a slow-cooked sushi platter, and marble soda. Suleiman loves their udon noodles. He couldn't stop eating them, and after he finished, he was so happy that he fell right asleep. There are quite a few grilled items, but they are mostly mushroom-based vegetable dishes with less meat. The soy sauce for the sushi is a bit salty, and the sushi itself is just average, which is a pity. The staff saw we had a child, so they cooked the sukiyaki for us before bringing it to the table. That deserves a thumbs up. The eel rice tastes okay, and next time I want to try their teriyaki chicken rice.

Xue's Northwest Corner Old-Style Breakfast

Ever since the Northwest Corner became super popular, I basically stopped going there to eat. Actually, Tianjin has so many delicious breakfast spots, not just the Northwest Corner. I used to go to Tianmu and Jinjiayao for breakfast, but this time I went to Xue's Northwest Corner Old-Style Breakfast in the Lushuidao area of Jinnan District. Their shop is a simple neighborhood eatery on the ground floor of an apartment complex, where all the local seniors come to eat.

We didn't arrive until nine, so most things were sold out. We just ordered water caltrop dumplings (lingjiao tang), sesame flatbread with meat (shaobing jiarou), and savory crepe strips in sauce (guobacai). Their water caltrop dumplings are truly delicious. The skin is the perfect texture, and the filling is very fragrant. Suleiman ate several in one go. The sesame flatbread for the meat sandwich is crispy, and the flavor is quite good. The savory crepe strips are a traditional old-school flavor, but eating both the dumplings and the crepe strips together is a bit heavy. I feel like the crepe strips go best with iron-pot soy milk.

Algerian Bakery

I had an Algerian afternoon tea at Lyn's Healthy Bakeshop on Chifeng Road in Tianjin. Chifeng Road is in the former French Concession area, which is full of small Western-style villas and all kinds of little shops.

The owner, who is from Algeria, opened this small shop for tea and desserts. It should be the first Algerian restaurant in China. I have to say, Tianjin's food scene is once again at the forefront of internationalization!

They offer both à la carte and afternoon tea sets. They have both traditional Algerian desserts and Western pastries. Everything uses maple syrup instead of white sugar, focusing on healthy eating. It is probably the least sweet Arabic dessert shop I have ever visited!

We drank Algerian mint tea and Algerian orange blossom lemonade (Sherbet Mazhar). The mint tea is brewed to order, so you have to wait a while. The aroma is very strong, but because it is freshly brewed, you cannot get refills. Orange blossom water is definitely a signature Algerian drink, especially classic at wedding banquets in northern Algeria. The orange blossom drink is made from orange blossom water distilled from bitter orange blossoms, mixed with syrup and water. It is very refreshing in the summer.

We ate Algerian baklava (Baklawa), apple pie, milk pudding (M'halbi), and cheesecake. Suleiman loved the cheesecake the most. Baklava was introduced to Algeria from Turkey during the Ottoman period. The Algerian version adds crushed almonds and orange blossom water, so the taste is different from the Turkish one.

Milk pudding (M'halbi) is a classic Middle Eastern dessert for breaking the fast and is most popular during Ramadan. The name M'halbi comes from Al-Muhallab, the governor of Khorasan during the Umayyad Caliphate. Legend has it that he once had a stomachache, and a doctor made him milk-boiled rice flour with sugar. He liked it so much that he named the dessert after himself.

Finally, I want to say that their food is excellent, but the decor is still a bit simple. If they could highlight the Algerian theme more, it would definitely become a new trendy spot in Tianjin.

Yiweizhai Halal Rice Noodle Rolls

I ate rice noodle rolls (changfen) at Yiweizhai on Xihu Road in Tianjin. I used to go to Yeji Changfen whenever I visited Tianjin, but this was my first time at Yiweizhai. The shop at Yiweizhai is small, but they have a huge variety of dishes. We ordered seafood rice noodle rolls, fresh shrimp steamed dumplings (shaomai), chicken feet in black bean sauce (chizhi fengzhua), claypot rice with cured beef (laoniurou baozai fan), plain beef tendon balls, curry beef balls, curry fish balls, and traditional crispy mung bean starch jelly (laowei cuipi menzi). Except for the claypot rice, which takes a while because it is cooked from raw rice, the other dishes arrived very quickly.

Overall, their food is very good. It really shows how much effort Tianjin people put into their cooking. Their rice noodle rolls have a great texture, not as firm as the ones I had in Hong Kong. Their beef tendon balls and fish balls also have a fantastic texture; we ordered one portion and then added another. By comparison, the beef balls were just average. This was my first time eating crispy mung bean starch jelly. I had only ever had pan-fried versions before, which clearly do not taste as good as this crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside version.

My hometown: Hexiwu Town, Wuqing, Tianjin.

Xinpengzhai Restaurant.

I first bought the signature golden-rimmed braised noodles (jinbian koumen) at Xinpengzhai Restaurant. It is beef and bean sprout braised noodles (menbing) topped with a fried egg. The egg was very fragrant, and it was my first time eating menbing this way. It tasted excellent.

Wangji Lirenzhai.

Inside the Hexiwu farmers' market is the Shouyi Snack Street, where the most famous item is the yellow rice fried cake (huangmi zhagao) from the century-old shop Wangji Lirenzhai. We arrived a bit late and they were closing at 1:00 PM, so we just bought all the remaining fried cakes.

Lirenzhai is a Tianjin intangible cultural heritage project for the craft of making Hexiwu Lirenzhai fried cakes. The Wang family's ancestral home was in Cangzhou, Hebei. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, they fled the war and came to Wuqing. They first settled in Yangcun, but later heard that Hexiwu was densely populated and had a large community of Hui Muslims, so they moved to Hexiwu to settle down. In 1918, Wang Zhenlong inherited the family craft and officially set up a stall in Hexiwu, specializing in yellow rice fried cakes. After 1958, the Wangji fried cake business was merged into a cooperative store, and it was shut down after the 1960s. It wasn't until 1979 that the second-generation successor, Wang Jinyuan, inherited the family business and revived Wangji fried cakes. In 1999, the third-generation successor, Wang Xueren, took over and renamed it Lirenzhai, which is what it is called today.

Yangji Gezhihe.

Besides yellow rice fried cakes, the fried mung bean flour rolls (gezhihe) in Hexiwu are also very famous. Unlike the common version, the ones here are filled. They come in mung bean flour and wheat flour varieties, giving them a richer texture than standard fried mung bean flour rolls. Collapse Read »

Reposted from the web

Summary: This article covers the Kazakhstan National Museum collection exhibition at Tianjin Museum, with a close look at historical artifacts, steppe culture, and Central Asian heritage. It preserves the original exhibition details, object names, photographs, and cultural context for English readers.

From September 30, 2024, to February 12, 2025, the fifth floor of the Tianjin Museum is hosting an exhibition of historical artifacts from the National Museum of Kazakhstan. Overall, it is not very stunning and lacks any major, heavy-hitting artifacts. Of course, I did not see any particularly significant artifacts when I visited the National Museum of Kazakhstan in person either.







These are carved clay tiles from the 12th-century Karakhanid dynasty Aisha-Bibi Mausoleum in the ancient city of Taraz. The architectural style of this mausoleum follows the Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara and serves as an important example of Karakhanid architecture. Taraz grew into a wealthy city during the 9th-century Samanid dynasty, reached its peak during the 10th to 12th-century Karakhanid dynasty, and was destroyed by the Mongol army in 1220.



These are painted glazed tiles and glazed pottery shards from the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Mausoleum, dating to the Timurid dynasty between 1389 and 1405. This mausoleum is a masterpiece of Timurid architecture and an important religious center in southern Kazakhstan. It was added to the World Heritage List in 2003.





These are glazed tile fragments unearthed from a mausoleum at the Zhaiyk ancient city site, dating to the 14th-century Golden Horde period. The Zhaiyk ancient city site was discovered by an archaeological team in 2001 and has since been fully excavated and studied. Inside the city, they found the remains of a Turkish bath with an underfloor heating system, and in the cemetery west of the city, they found a domed mausoleum decorated with colorful glazed tiles.



These are clay bricks unearthed from the Kyshkala ancient city site in the Syr Darya delta. Kyshkala was a wealthy ancient city during the Golden Horde period that produced a large number of clay bricks.







This is a Kimeshek, an embroidered head covering for married women from 19th-century southern Kazakhstan.





A Kimeshek with lace pendants.







A Kebeje, which is a wooden chest with bone inlays, dating from the 19th to the mid-20th century.







A Khan's robe (chapan) made of velvet, gold and silver thread, and appliqué from 18th to 19th-century northern Kazakhstan. After the 18th century, due to long-term conflicts with the Dzungar Khanate, the Kazakh Khanate split into the Senior, Middle, and Junior Juz, with each Juz having its own Khan. After the mid-19th century, the Kazakh Khanate was gradually controlled by the Russian Empire. Khan Kenesary Kasymov (reigned 1841–1847) was the last national hero to bravely resist Russia. After he died for his country in 1847, the Kazakh Khanate was declared fallen.









Traditional Kazakh clothing made by master designer Aizhan Abdubait. She comes from a family of tailors and is dedicated to making ethnic clothing. She has also restored the gold-thread embroidery technique that was gradually lost after the fall of the Kazakh Khanate in the 19th century. This is an embroidery technique that was used on the clothing of Khans and Sultans during the Kazakh Khanate era.











A 19th-century chest ornament.



A 20th-century belt.





An axe, a club, and a sheathed knife.



A 19th-century copper pot. Collapse Read »

Reposted from the web

Summary: This article follows a tasting route through drinks from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, from street-side juices to regional bottled drinks and cafe favorites. It keeps the original drink names, places, prices, photos, and travel notes for readers looking for everyday food culture in Southeast Asia.

Malaysia

Malacca: avocado juice, longan lemon tea, and lime plum juice (lime plum shuizhi).

Penang: sour plum guava juice, Penang nutmeg water, and Arabian rose water.

Seremban: lychee water.

Kuala Lumpur: blue pea flower tea and barley lime water.

Singapore

Clear soup (chee kong), three-layer milk tea, pulled tea (teh tarik), Milo dinosaur, and ginger tea.

Indonesia

Yogyakarta: cendol drink (es dawet ayu), dragon fruit juice, and ginger herbal drink (sekoteng).

Solo: basil seed cendol (es dawet telasih), durian cendol (es dawet durian), and herbal medicine (jamu).

Kudus: fruit ice (es buah).

Banten: mixed ice dessert (es campur).

Jakarta: layered rice flour jelly drink (selendang mayang).

Malaysia

Malacca

Avocado juice

Across from Dataran Pahlawan in Malacca, there is a large Malay night market that seems to open only on weekends, offering endless varieties of snacks. We had just finished a meal and were too full to eat, so we bought a huge avocado juice. Tropical fruits are cheap all over Malaysia. As long as you don't buy durian in tourist areas, you can basically eat as much fruit as you want.





Longan lemon tea

In Kampung Hulu, there is a lovely cake shop called Malaiqa By Gula Cakery that is very popular with young people. The shop is located in a shophouse built in 1941. The decor is fresh and simple, showing a great example of revitalizing the old city. We ordered the longan lemon tea, and it tasted great. These fresh, small shops in Malaysia are really wonderful, though we usually go for traditional food and don't visit places like this very often.









Lime plum drink (juzi suanmei shui)

As the birthplace of Nyonya culture, you must try Nyonya food when visiting Malacca. There are many halal Nyonya restaurants on the east side of Malacca's old town along Merdeka Street (Jln Merdeka), with Atlantic and Cottage Spices being the most famous. Both places had lines when we arrived, so we took numbers for both. Cottage Spices had an opening first, so we ate there. We ordered the lime plum drink (juzi suanmei shui), which was tart and very appetizing.









Penang

Sour plum guava juice

Lagenda Cafe in Penang is a themed restaurant honoring the godfather of Malay film and music, P. Ramlee (1929-1973), and it plays his classic songs on a loop. We drank Asam Boi & Guava Tea, made with lime, mint, black tea, sour plum, and fresh-pressed guava juice; it was very refreshing and smooth.







Penang nutmeg drink and Arabian rose water (sherbet)

A unique group called Jawi Peranakan lives in Penang and Singapore. They are a Malay-speaking community formed by the intermarriage of Indian (as well as Arab and Persian) men and Malay women. "Jawi" means "Southeast Asia" in Arabic, and "Peranakan" means "locally born" in Malay.

After the 20th century, as the British Empire declined, the Jawi Peranakan community began to integrate into the Malay population. Today, the government counts most Jawi Peranakan as "Malay." Even so, the Jawi Peranakan community still works hard to pass on its unique culture, which shows in their architecture, clothing, jewelry, and food.

Today, the best place in Penang to experience Jawi Peranakan culture is the Jawi House Cafe Gallery. The building was originally a Straits Eclectic-style Chinese shophouse built in the 1860s with Malay-style decorations, and it later served as an Indian coppersmith shop. The street where the shop is located, Armenian Street (Lebuh Armenian, formerly Malay lane), was the earliest settlement area for the Jawi Peranakan community. In 2012, the Karim family, who have lived in Penang for six generations and have Punjabi roots, opened Jawi House here to make authentic Jawi Peranakan food.

We drank the Penang Nutmeg and Arabian Sherbet here. Nutmeg is a local Penang specialty, and this drink is mixed with honey and lemon for a sweet and sour taste.

Sherbet comes from the Persian word "Sharbat," which means a non-alcoholic sugary drink. In medieval Arabia, people loved to add syrup and honey to Sharbat for sweetness, along with almonds, lemon, apple, pomegranate, tamarind, dates, sumac, musk, and mint. Spread by Arabs and Persians, Sharbat is now popular across West Asia, South Asia, and the Malay Archipelago, especially during Ramadan. The Arabian Sherbet at Jawi House is made with rose syrup, mallow nuts, gum arabic, and basil seeds, giving it a very rich flavor.







Hibiscus

Lychee water

Mohd Chan is likely the most famous and largest halal Cantonese restaurant chain in Malaysia, now with 19 locations including restaurants, dim sum shops, and takeout spots. The founder of Mohd Chan, Dato HJ Mohd Chan, was born in Gombak, Selangor. Influenced by his Malay friends, he converted to Islam in 2007 and started his halal Cantonese restaurant that same year, focusing on blending Cantonese cuisine with local flavors. We drank their lychee water, which was packed with plenty of ingredients.







Kuala Lumpur

Blue pea flower tea and barley lime water

Whether it is halal Chinese food or halal Nyonya cuisine, the Klang Valley area where Kuala Lumpur is located has the highest number of options in Malaysia. Just inside the NU Sentral mall opposite Kuala Lumpur Sentral station, there are three halal Nyonya restaurants, making it a great place for traveling friends (dosti) to grab a bite. We ate at the largest of the three, Peranakan Place, which has several branches in Kuala Lumpur and Malacca. We ordered the blue pea flower tea and barley lime water, both of which were very unique.







Singapore

Chee Kong clear soup (qing tang)

Geylang Serai is located near the Geylang River in eastern Singapore. The Geylang Serai Malay bazaar (market) dates back to the 1920s. During World War II, the Japanese turned it into an amusement park, but after the war, it returned to being a bustling Malay bazaar where local Malay residents come to shop. The only Chinese stall in the bazaar is Chee Kong clear soup (qing tang), an old shop that opened in the 1950s. You can add longan, sweet potato, and ginkgo nuts to the clear soup, and it can be served hot or cold. Drinking a bowl of clear soup is very refreshing after eating spicy Malay food.









Three-layer milk tea

Haig Road Market & Food Centre has a lot of Malay delicacies. We drank the classic three-layer milk tea, which uses palm sugar, milk, and black tea to create three distinct layers with a rich taste.







Pulled tea (teh tarik) and Milo Dinosaur

We had a cup of the classic Nanyang pulled tea (teh tarik) at Tarik, a shop next to the Sultan Mosque in Kampong Glam. Local Malay youth really love this place. Tarik means 'pull' in Malay. By mixing black tea and condensed milk and pouring it back and forth between two containers with outstretched arms, the tea cools down and becomes frothy. We also ordered a cup of Milo, which is a chocolate malt powder from Nestlé. People in Malaysia and Singapore like to sprinkle Milo powder on iced Milo, which they call Milo Dinosaur.











Ginger tea

Bhai Sarbat on Baghdad Street was started by an Indian Muslim in the 1950s and has been around for 70 years. Bhai means brother in Urdu. Bhai Sarbat started as a street pushcart stall and moved into this shophouse on Baghdad Street in the 1970s. Today it sells hundreds of drinks, but the ginger tea is still the most famous.





Indonesia

Yogyakarta

Es Dawet Ayu

Es Dawet Ayu is a specialty iced drink from Central Java that comes from the small town of Banjarnegara. Its main ingredients are rice flour, glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, palm sugar syrup, and grass jelly.











Dragon fruit juice

Freshly squeezed dragon fruit juice on the streets of Yogyakarta. The juices in Java are really rich.





Sekoteng

Sekoteng is a Javanese specialty hot ginger drink made with peanuts, bread slices, and pearl flowers. Hot drinks are still quite rare in Java. It feels like the ginger helps remove dampness.





Solo

Es Dawet Telasih

Es Dawet Telasih is a Solo specialty iced drink made of coconut milk, palm sugar, cendol (rice flour jelly), bubur sumsum (coconut rice pudding), basil seeds, and black glutinous rice.





Es Dawet Durian is Es Dawet Telasih with durian added.





Jamu

Jamu is a specialty Javanese drink, which is a traditional Javanese herbal medicine mixed with honey and palm sugar.



Kudus

Es Buah

I drank Es Buah, a Javanese iced drink with various fruits added, in Kudus.







Banten

Mixed ice drink (Es Campur)

As a holy site, the Great Mosque of Banten attracts a constant stream of visitors every day, and a very lively bazaar has formed around it. At the bazaar, I drank a mixed ice drink (Es Campur) made with coconut milk, red sugar syrup, coconut meat, and fruit jelly.







Jakarta

Layered rice flour drink (Selendang Mayang)

Jakarta Old Town (Kota Tua Jakarta), also called Old Batavia (Oud Batavia), was the most important Dutch colonial outpost in Southeast Asia and served as the headquarters for the Dutch East India Company from the 17th to the 19th century. The center of Old Batavia is Fatahillah Square, where the main building is the Jakarta History Museum. The Jakarta History Museum was built in 1710 and was formerly the Batavia City Hall. The museum courtyard has a small area dedicated to traditional Betawi snacks, where I drank a rare, historic Batavian ice drink called layered rice flour drink (Selendang Mayang). Layered rice flour drink (Selendang Mayang) is made from rice flour, vanilla powder, pandan leaves, red sugar syrup, and coconut milk.

The Betawi people are a unique ethnic group that formed in Jakarta. In 1619, the Dutch established Batavia as the trade and administrative center for the Dutch East India Company. After the Dutch East India Company signed a formal peace treaty with the Sultanate of Banten in 1684, the swampy areas around Batavia could finally be cultivated. More and more people lived outside the city walls, including Malays, Sundanese, Javanese, Minangkabau, and Bugis people. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the various ethnic groups living in Batavia began to merge. Over the course of a hundred years, they finally formed the modern Betawi people by the early 20th century. The Betawi people speak a version of Malay mixed with many words from Fujian Chinese, Arabic, and Dutch, known as Betawi Malay. It is the only Malay-speaking region on the northern coast of Java. Betawi cuisine is also strongly influenced by Indonesian Chinese, Arab, European, and local Sundanese and Javanese food.





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Reposted from the web

Summary: This 2024 travel summary covers the first half of the year, including trips through Singapore, Malaysia, China, and other destinations with halal food and Muslim travel notes. It keeps the original route, dates, places, photographs, and food details as a clear English travel record.

January in Singapore.

I traveled to Singapore in January and tasted various halal Chinese dishes. I found prawn noodles (xia mian), Hakka stuffed tofu (niang doufu), Hong Kong-style dim sum, Hainanese chicken rice, and stir-fry tea house dishes run by Hui Muslims. See "Tasting Halal Chinese Food in Singapore."

I discovered a halal-certified Peranakan restaurant in Singapore called Old Nyonya Kitchen (Lao Niangre Xiaochu) on Joo Chiat Road. Also, in Bedok North Street in eastern Singapore, there is a 60-year-old shop called Lu Lin Nyonya Kueh. They have a shop in front and a factory in the back, selling all kinds of halal Nyonya cakes (kueh). See "Eating Nyonya Food in Singapore."

Singapore has a very strong Indian culture. Tamil people from the southeastern coast of India built the Al-Abrar Mosque and the Jamae Mosque in Chinatown, as well as the Nagore Dargah, a Sufi shrine (gongbei). Little India is the liveliest place in Singapore. The shophouses on both sides are filled with Indian shops. At the southern end, there is the Abdul Gafoor Mosque built by Tamils, and at the northern end, there is the Angullia Mosque built by Gujaratis. The Tekka Centre in Little India has a row of Indian food stalls, and there is also the Indian Heritage Centre that introduces Indian culture. Kampong Glam has many century-old Indian shops. Some specialize in roti prata (fei bing), and some were even favored by British governors. See "Experiencing Indian Muslim Culture in Singapore."

The Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore originally focused on collecting crafts from Malays and other indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia. After the 1990s, it expanded its scope to collect items from West and South Asia, gradually becoming a museum that showcases the intersection of different Asian cultures and civilizations. See "Visiting the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore."

In Fort Canning Park, Singapore, there is the tomb of Sultan Iskandar Shah of Singapore, who is said to be the founder of the Malacca Sultanate. Archaeologists discovered thousands of 14th-century artifacts near the Sultan's tomb, many of which came from China and Java. At the foot of Mount Faber in southern Singapore, there is the tomb of Temenggong Abdul Rahman, one of the founders of modern Singapore, and his family. Kampong Glam in Singapore was originally the land of Sultan Hussein of Johor. The Sultan's family built the Sultan Mosque, the palace, and the Prime Minister's office here, and there is also a cemetery for the Sultan's family in the north. On the east side of Kampong Glam, there is the Hajjah Fatimah Mosque built by a Malay noblewoman. East of the Sultan's palace is the former site of a publishing house founded by members of the Sultan's family. Kampong Glam has several long-standing Padang rice (padang fan) restaurants that are well worth eating at. See "The Malays and the Early History of Singapore."

After Singapore was established as a free trade port in 1819, the Aljunied family from Yemen, who were doing business in Palembang, Sumatra, immediately came to Singapore and then established a spice and batik clothing trade network there. After that, other Arab merchants also came to Singapore to open shops, gradually forming Arab Street. We visited a batik and Nyonya clothing store opened by the Aljunied family in 1940, and bought traditional batik clothing at another batik shop opened by people of Yemeni descent. Another family from Yemen, the Alsagoff family, once dominated the spice trade in Singapore. They founded the oldest existing Islamic school (madrasa) in Singapore and built a shrine (gongbei) for a Yemeni Sufi sage in Singapore. See "Arab Merchants in Singapore."

Geylang Serai is located in the eastern part of Singapore. In the early 20th century, it became an important Malay community in Singapore. The Geylang Serai Market is the largest Malay market in Singapore, where you can taste various Malay delicacies. The nearby Haig Road Market and Food Centre also have many Malay delicacies. On the second floor of City Plaza near the Geylang River, you can find Singapore's last shop making handmade traditional caps (songkok). The Malay Heritage Centre is located next to the Geylang Serai Market. See "Visiting the Malay Market in Geylang Serai, Singapore."

January: Johor Bahru, Seremban, Klang, Ipoh, and Kuala Kangsar, Malaysia.

We went to Malaysia to eat various halal Chinese meals. In Johor Bahru, we ate at the Hainanese coffee shop Hua Mui and visited the Johor Bahru Chinese Heritage Museum. In Seremban, we ate at the halal Chinese restaurants Muhammad Kew and Mohd Chan. In Klang, we ate at the halal Chinese restaurants Yiqi Chichi and Rahmat Tan. In Ipoh, we ate at the famous halal Chinese restaurant Lau Kee, the halal Chinese stir-fry shop Gerai Ipoh Ipoh Aje, and stayed at the heritage shophouse hotel Sarang Paloh. In Kuala Kangsar, we ate at the old-school Hainanese coffee shop Yut Loy. See "Tasting Halal Chinese Food in Malaysia."

After the 14th century, the Minangkabau people living on Sumatra Island crossed the Strait of Malacca to settle in Negeri Sembilan on the Malay Peninsula. Today, you can experience Minangkabau culture at the Negeri Sembilan State Museum. On the hill to the east of Seremban Lake Garden is the Tuanku Ja'afar Royal Gallery. In the city center, there is the century-old Jamek Mosque and the famous long-standing shop Haji Shariff's Cendol. See "Negeri Sembilan: The Settlement of the Minangkabau People in Malaysia."

Kuala Kangsar is located in Perak, Malaysia. It has been the royal city of the Sultan of Perak since the 18th century, where you can feel the authentic Malay village (kampung) atmosphere. On Friday, we visited the night market at the Kuala Kangsar Market and tasted various Malay snacks. The core area of the Perak Sultan's royal city is on Bukit Chandan hill. It features the Istana Hulu built in 1898 (currently closed), the Ubudiah Mosque built in 1913, the Perak Royal Mausoleum built in 1915, the Perak Prince's wooden house built in 1912, the bamboo-walled Istana Kenangan built in 1926, and the Istana Iskandariah built in 1933 (not open to the public). See "The Royal City of the Perak Sultan and the Lively Malay Night Market."

Ipoh is located in Perak, Malaysia, and is known as the "City of Tin." In the late 19th century, many South Indian Tamils came to Ipoh to make a living, and the Ipoh Indian Mosque was built in 1908. Some North Indian Pathans (Pashtun descent) and Punjabis also came to Ipoh to work as police officers, and they built the Pakistan Mosque in Ipoh's Little India in 1930. In Ipoh's old town, we ate at a Tamil mamak stall that has been serving rice with curry (nasi kandar) for over 50 years, and we also had durian shaved ice (cendol) in the old town. The center for Malay people in Ipoh is the Panglima Kinta Mosque, built in 1898 by the Kinta River. See "Indian and Malay Mosques in Ipoh, Malaysia."

The Muhammadiah Mosque in Tasek, in the northern suburbs of Ipoh, was rebuilt under the leadership of the Ipoh branch of the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association. It is the first mosque in Malaysia with a purely Chinese architectural style, and you can see Chinese characters everywhere inside. I performed the Friday prayer (namaz) at the mosque and met Dato' Sheikh Abdul Rahman, the chairman of the Ipoh branch of the Chinese Muslim Association. See "Performing Friday Prayer at a Chinese Mosque in Malaysia."

In 1889, Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor officially moved the royal capital to Johor Bahru. The Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque is a mosque in Malaysia with a very distinct Victorian style. The Mahmoodiah Royal Mausoleum is the royal burial ground for the Sultans of Johor, and it also uses Victorian architectural style. The Pasir Pelangi Royal Mosque is located next to the Pasir Pelangi Palace of the Sultan of Johor, and the entire structure is in a neoclassical style. The Johor Art Gallery has many works by Johor artists, and there is a young man on-site to guide you through the experience of traditional tie-dyeing. There are traditional Johor Malay buildings in the courtyard where you can change into traditional clothes for photos. On Jalan Dhoby in the old town of Johor Bahru, there is a traditional Indian bakery that has been open for over 80 years, and there is also an Indian mosque nearby. See "The Royal City of the Temenggong Dynasty of the Johor Sultanate—Johor Bahru."

On Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, a street with century-old arcade buildings in the old town of Johor Bahru, you will find Nyonya Dynasty, the first Nyonya restaurant in Johor state to receive halal certification. There are three halal Nyonya restaurants in the NU Sentral mall opposite KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur, and this time we ate at the largest of the three, Peranakan Place. See "Eating Nyonya Cuisine in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia."

Selangor is located on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. After the 17th century, the Bugis people from Sulawesi Island entered Selangor as mercenaries and established the Sultanate of Selangor in the 18th century. In 1874, the Selangor royal city was destroyed in a civil war, and Sultan Abdul Samad moved the royal city to the foot of Jugra Hill inside the mouth of the Selangor River. Today, two historical buildings, the Alaeddin Palace and the Alaeddin Mosque, are still preserved here. The Sultan also built the Alam Shah Palace in Klang. The Sultan Sulaiman Royal Mosque, which is right next to the palace, uses Art Deco style. The Sultan Abdul Aziz Royal Gallery is located in the center of the old town of Klang. The arcade area of Klang's old town has a lively Little India neighborhood, and the Indian mosque is a landmark building. See "The Royal City of the Sultan of Selangor—Jugra, Klang."

February, Urumqi.

Hotan Street is a famous food street in Urumqi. We ate the Kashgar Yibazhua (a type of meat bun) that had the longest line on Hotan Second Street, drank pigeon soup, bought traditional Uyghur pastries, and ate roasted goose eggs, handmade yogurt, and Yangle spicy chicken. There are also many Kazakh restaurants on Hotan Street. We ate horse sausage narin (a traditional meat and noodle dish) and milk tea at the Sai Gulu Ke restaurant, and had a Kazakh breakfast at Baoersake. I also bought an old-fashioned poplar wood sapayi (a traditional percussion instrument) at the Duoluozhe Ethnic Musical Instrument Store in Erdaoqiao, and bought usma (a plant-based eyebrow pencil) on the street. We walked around the Tianshan Vanke mall, which has many Uyghur restaurants and even a restaurant specifically for children's supplementary food. See "Hotan Street, Erdaoqiao, and Tianshan Vanke in Urumqi."

Although I was busy with night prayers during this return to Urumqi, I still found time to visit two small Hui Muslim eateries. The first one is Zainab's childhood treasure restaurant—Heping Bridge Dumpling Restaurant. Their place is a rare, old-school Hui Muslim sour soup dumpling shop in Urumqi. The second place is Xinshenghua Meatball Soup (wanzi tang) for Hui Muslims in Changji. The environment is very nice, the kitchen is open for everyone to see, and the food tastes great. See "Sharing Two Hui Muslim Eateries I Visited in Urumqi This Time."

I went to the Dawan Gongbei in Urumqi to attend the funeral (maitai) for an elder from the Luyuan Street community. After the funeral, I visited the two sages at the Dawan Gongbei. The first is the elder from Weijiapu, the first imam (ahong) to start formal religious education in Urumqi. The second is Imam Ma Zongfu, the leader of the Beiliang Mosque and Beifang Mosque in Urumqi, known to everyone as Elder Datong. See "Visiting the Dawan Gongbei in Urumqi."

March, Wuhan

I returned to Wuhan ten years after graduation. At night, I ate at Diaohuzi Hui Muslim Barbecue in Erqi, Jiang'an. In the morning, I prayed (namaz) at the Jiang'an Mosque. At Chengliji, I caught some freshly fried beef meatballs (niurou yuanzi). At the Yixiangzhai food shop nearby, I bought peanut brittle (huasheng su) and ginger candy (jiangzhi zatang). On the side road of Erqi, I ate three-ingredient noodles and beef mixed noodles at the Halal Shuangbao Red Oil Beef series shop. At noon, I ate Ma's hot dry noodles (reganmian) on Liangdao Street in Wuchang and taro cheese bricks at the Halal Red Brick Wall shop. In the evening, I went to the Yizhiwei Restaurant on Bayi Road to eat Halal Hubei cuisine. See "Returning to Wuhan Ten Years After Graduation (Part 1): Jiang'an Mosque, Central China Normal University, and Wuchang Food."

Early in the morning, I went to the Ma Si Baba Gongbei on Huquan Street to pay my respects. In the afternoon, I drank sand-boiled coffee and ate baklava at a Turkish cafe in Tongxingli, Hankou. In the afternoon, I went to the Fatumei Restaurant on Huangxing Road to eat beef spring rolls, stir-fried beef tripe, and shredded dry-fried beef. See "Returning to Wuhan Ten Years After Graduation (Part 2): Ma Si Baba Gongbei, Turkish Coffee, and Fatumei Restaurant."

March, Hexiwu, Wuqing, Tianjin

I went back to my hometown with my family in Hexiwu Town, Wuqing District, Tianjin. Because it was a key hub for water transport, Hexiwu Town had many Hui Muslim merchants during the Ming and Qing dynasties. There was a Hui Muslim camp southwest of the town, and the Hexiwu Mosque was first built in the early years of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty. After leaving the mosque, we bought the local specialty golden-rimmed braised meat (jinbian koumen) at the Xinpengzhai Restaurant. Then we went to the "First Post Station Snack Street" inside the Hexiwu Farmers' Market. The most famous item there is the yellow rice fried cake (huangmi zhagao) from the century-old Wangji Lirenzhai. Also, the crispy fried dough pockets (gezhe he) of Hexiwu are very famous. See "My Hometown—Hexiwu Town, Wuqing, Tianjin."

May, Yiwu and Lishui, Zhejiang

After four years, we visited Yiwu again. After travel restrictions were lifted, Yiwu became busy again. People from countries in the Middle East and Africa all came to Yiwu to buy goods, and many new Middle Eastern restaurants opened, especially in the Binwang business district. This time, we chose a few of the newly opened restaurants to try. See "Many New Middle Eastern Restaurants Have Opened in Yiwu."

On the afternoon of May 2, I took the high-speed train from Yiwu to Lishui to visit Lishui Mosque. Lishui Mosque has two sections, featuring two gate towers, a front hall, connecting corridors, and a main hall, all in a distinct local Lishui style. The gate towers are the most unique part and are listed as a Lishui City cultural heritage site. See "Visiting Lishui Mosque in Zhejiang."

In May, I visited Fuzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen in Fujian.

I visited Fuzhou Mosque at Nanmendou and went to pay my respects at the tomb of the Sheikh (shaihai) inside the Hui Muslim cemetery on Meifeng Road. The Fuzhou Museum displays three Song and Yuan dynasty tombstone carvings from Quanzhou. I had lunch at the famous Turkish restaurant Aladdin, then returned to Fuzhou Mosque for Jumu'ah prayer. See "Jumu'ah in Fuzhou: Fuzhou Mosque, Sheikh Tomb, Song and Yuan Stone Carvings, and a Turkish Restaurant."

I went to Qingjing Mosque in Quanzhou for Zuhr prayer. Imam Ma of Qingjing Mosque is from Hualong, Qinghai. During the day, he leads prayers in the main hall donated by Oman, and after the tourist area closes, he leads prayers in the smaller Mingshan Hall. The next morning, I continued exploring Qingjing Mosque. See "The Thousand-Year-Old Qingjing Mosque in Quanzhou."

Lingshan Holy Tomb is in the east of Quanzhou city, also known as the Tomb of the Three and Four Sages. The holy tomb currently has two granite graves divided into three layers, with lotus petal carvings on the bottom layer. In 1958, when the Fuzhou-Xiamen highway outside the East Gate of Quanzhou was widened, several Song and Yuan dynasty Muslim pedestal-style tomb stones by the road were moved next to the Lingshan Holy Tomb. Next to the Lingshan Holy Tomb is the cemetery for local Quanzhou Hui Muslims. The Ge, Ma, and Huang families are descendants of the generations of imams who served at Qingjing Mosque. A large section of the Lingshan Sacred Tomb scenic area is dedicated to the Ding family cemetery from Chendai. See "Lingshan Holy Tomb in Quanzhou."

At noon, I took a taxi south of Quanzhou to Chendai Mosque for Asr prayer and visited the Chendai Hui Muslim History Museum located inside the Ding Family Ancestral Hall. See "Chendai Mosque and the Chendai Hui Muslim History Museum in Quanzhou, Fujian."

In Quanzhou, besides the famous Baiqi Guo family of Hui Muslims, there is also a branch of the Jundong Guo family of Hui Muslims. Today, the Xingzhai Guo Family Ancestral Hall is a large Southern Fujian-style ancestral hall with three rows of buildings, two courtyards, and two side houses. It is a Quanzhou cultural heritage site and serves as the cultural activity center for the Xingzhai Hui Muslim Seniors Association. Inside the Guo Family Ancestral Hall in Xingzhai, there are several stone tablets, one of which is inscribed with 'Site of the Islamic Mosque'. See 'Echoes of the Faith: The Guo Family Mosque of the Hui Muslims in Xingzhai, Quanzhou'.

The Quanzhou Maritime Museum was built in 1959. In 2003, the Quanzhou Islamic Culture Exhibition Hall was completed, and in 2008, the 'Arabs and Persians in Quanzhou' exhibition officially opened, displaying over 200 stone carvings from the Song and Yuan dynasties related to the faith. See 'Song and Yuan Dynasty Islamic Stone Carvings in the Quanzhou Maritime Museum Collection'.

At noon, I visited the Xiamen Mosque and was very grateful to have braised noodles (huimian) made by Imam Liu. Inside the Xiamen Mosque, there are two stone tablets dating back to 1902 (the 28th year of the Guangxu reign) and 1924 (the 13th year of the Republic of China). I had dinner at the main branch of Ma'erlong in the evening. See '[2024 May Day Trip] Xiamen Mosque and Ma'erlong Xinjiang Cuisine'.

The Anthropology Museum of Xiamen University is the first university museum in the People's Republic of China, and it houses a large number of Song and Yuan dynasty Islamic stone carvings from Quanzhou. See 'Song and Yuan Dynasty Islamic Stone Carvings in the Xiamen University Anthropology Museum Collection'.

May: Chengdu, Dujiangyan, and Leshan, Sichuan.

I went to Chengdu for a business trip in May and stayed behind the Huangcheng Mosque. This time, I felt the area in front of the Huangcheng Mosque was much livelier than before, with many new restaurants opened. See 'The Huangcheng Mosque Neighborhood in Chengdu is Great for Exploring'.

Tuqiao is located in the northwest of Chengdu. Since the Qing Dynasty, it has been a necessary stop for merchants traveling to Chengdu from Aba and Songpan via the Songmao Ancient Road. Many Hui Muslims settled here, and during the reigns of Yongzheng and Qianlong, two mosques were built, known as the Tuqiao Lower Mosque and Upper Mosque. On the evening of May 16, I first bought half a smoked duck at Shunji Marinated Meats (Shunji Yanlu) in front of the Tuqiao Upper Mosque. Then, I bought a serving of braised beef offal (shao niuza) with rice at the nearby Dama Ge Beef Restaurant. After coming down from Hufutan, I had some spicy wontons (hongyou chaoshou) at the Old Street Restaurant in front of the Tuqiao Upper Mosque. Tuqiao is very lively in the morning, and a line formed in front of Shunji Marinated Meats. The Sichuan-style marinated meats here are really worth buying. After finishing breakfast, I visited the Tuqiao Hui Muslim Cemetery, which has a history of over 200 years. See 'Tasting Sichuan Delicacies in Tuqiao, Chengdu'.

On May 15, we set off from Chengdu to Dujiangyan and visited the Dujiangyan Mosque at noon. There are many halal restaurants around the Dujiangyan Mosque, where you can eat authentic traditional Hui Muslim dishes from western Sichuan. Huixiangyuan, located right next to the Dujiangyan Mosque, is a long-established restaurant that displays a traditional soup pot (tangping) sign. I had some chilled tofu pudding (bing douhua) at a small snack shop in Dujiangyan; it was soft and very refreshing. See "Ancient Mosques and Food in Dujiangyan, Sichuan."

We left Chengdu early on May 16 and arrived in Leshan after a two-hour drive, heading to the local restaurant Haishi Qiaojiao Beef for lunch. The restaurant is right across from the Leshan Giant Buddha, next to the old Leshan Port on the Min River. Haishi Qiaojiao Beef was founded by Imam Hai Weixiong. Imam Hai is from Qingliu Town in the Rongchang District of Chongqing. His ancestors moved to Sichuan from Hubei and Hunan during the Kangxi reign. In October 1989, he became the first imam of the Leshan Mosque after the policy was restored, serving until 1998 when he retired to go into business. Besides Haishi Qiaojiao Beef in Leshan, there is also Sulaimani Qiaojiao Beef on the Maluqiao Food Street at the foot of Mount Emei. The owners are Hui Muslims from Rong County, Zigong City. See "Eating Qiaojiao Beef in Leshan and Mount Emei, Sichuan."

June, Liaocheng and Linqing, Shandong

Seven years later, I visited the Dongguan Hui Muslim community in Liaocheng again. There are two mosques in Liaocheng Dongguan: the west one is commonly known as the Great Mosque (Da Libaisi), and the east one is called the Small Mosque (Xiao Libaisi). The "Great and Small Mosque Street District" in Liaocheng Dongguan is among the first batch of historical and cultural districts in Shandong Province and serves as an important historical witness to the Hui Muslim communities along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal during the Ming and Qing dynasties. See "Revisiting the Great and Small Mosque Streets in Liaocheng Dongguan."

We took a train from Liaocheng to Linqing and went to Baoliang First Shop to eat a meat-filled pancake roll (bing juan rou). In the afternoon, we prayed the Dhuhr (lidigele) prayer at the North Mosque in Linqing, then went to the East Mosque across the street to pray the Asr (shamu) and Maghrib (hufutan) prayers. After the Asr prayer, we ate big bowls of food at Erliang Diguo Millet Porridge at the intersection of Xianfeng Road and Dazhong Road. After the Maghrib prayer, I rode my bike to the Linqing Women's Mosque to find Zainab. In the morning, we had breakfast at Kong Family Steamed Bowl (kouwan) at the Xianfeng Road intersection. After eating, we went to Xianfeng Road to have tofu brain (doufunao) and old tofu (lao doufu). At noon, we ate Wang Family Ten-Fragrance Noodles (shixiang mian) on Xinhua Road, then went to Hongguanying Mosque in Linxi County, Xingtai, Hebei, to pray the Dhuhr (pieshen) prayer. On the way back, we bought deep-stir-fried meat tenderloin (ganzha liji), meat-filled baked buns (rou huoshao), and smoked pigeon (xunge). See "The Ancient Canal City of Linqing, Shandong."

June: Shenyang, Xinmin, Dalian, Fuzhou, Fengcheng, Dandong, and Xinlitun in Liaoning.

I went to Liaoning for the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. I took a high-speed train from Beijing Chaoyang Station to Shenyang in the evening. The next morning, I went to the Lijiang Morning Market in Shenyang and had lamb soup, shaomai, and pan-fried meat pies (huitou) at Heige Lamb Soup. On the third morning, I visited the Bayi Morning Market in Shenyang again. Shenyang has so many morning markets, and every one of them is full of delicious food. After the market, I took a train from Shenyang Station to Xinmin to visit the Xinmin Mosque. At the halal restaurants around the Xinmin Mosque, you can see signs for the Jin, Bai, and Yang families. See "[Dragon Boat Festival Liaoning Trip] Visiting Shenyang Morning Markets and the Ancient Xinmin Mosque."

On the morning of June 8, I took a train from Shenyang to the ancient city of Fuzhou and had "Fuzhou old-style dishes" at the Qunfangyuan Restaurant near the Fuzhou city roundabout. After lunch, we went to the Fuzhou Mosque for namaz. The imam of the Fuzhou Mosque is from Mengcun, Cangzhou, Hebei. Hui Muslim homes in Fuzhou city. The old street has blue bricks and dark tiles, with Arabic calligraphy on the walls, keeping the look of the old days. There is a legendary halal food spot in Fuzhou city, which is my friend's family shop, Yin's sticky rice cake (jiangmi lianggao). In the afternoon, I took a high-speed train from Wafangdian West Station to Dalian North Station and had dinner at the long-established Ma's Dumpling Restaurant (Ma Jia Jiaozi Guan) in front of Dalian Railway Station. After dinner, I went to the Dalian Mosque on Beijing Street for namaz. The next morning, I left from Dalian Station for Qingdui, then took a taxi to the ancient town of Qingdui to visit the Qingdui Mosque. See "[Dragon Boat Festival Liaoning Trip] Dalian City, Fuzhou Ancient City, and Qingdui Ancient Town."

At noon on June 9, I took a train from Dalian to Fengcheng. At Wenbin Snack Bar, I had the Dandong-style stir-fried corn noodles (chao chazi), and also ordered corn grit eight-treasure porridge (dazhazi babaozhou) and a 6-yuan vegetable platter. After eating, I went to the Fengcheng Mosque for namaz. The imam of the Fengcheng Mosque is also from Cangzhou. In the afternoon, I took a train from Fengcheng to Dandong and visited the Dandong Mosque. The entrance to the mosque was very busy. In the afternoon, I had dinner at the long-established Jinlongge Restaurant in Dandong. They have a wide variety of traditional stir-fried dishes and seafood. See "[Dragon Boat Festival Liaoning Trip] Fengcheng Ancient Mosque and Dandong Food."

On the morning of June 10, I took a high-speed train from Liaoning's Xinmin North Station, arrived at Heishan North Station in 15 minutes, and then took a taxi to Xinlitun Town. I performed the afternoon prayer (peshin) at Xinlitun Mosque, where the imam, Ma, is from Cangzhou. There are many halal restaurants in Xinlitun, but many were closed for the Dragon Boat Festival. We bought beef jerky and smoked dried tofu (xungan doufu) at Wang Zijing Deli, and both were delicious! In the afternoon, we took a train from Xinlitun Railway Station to Fuxin South Station. We performed the late afternoon prayer (asr) and sunset prayer (maghrib) at Fuxin Mosque, then had dinner at Daijia Restaurant Huiweizhai near the mosque. Collapse Read »

Reposted from the web

Summary: This first part introduces Malay wooden houses and historic sites in Malacca, with attention to old homes, local architecture, and neighborhood history. It keeps the original place names, photographs, building details, and travel notes for readers interested in Malaysian heritage.

The beautiful and peaceful Malay village of Kampung Morten.

In the northern part of Malacca city sits a beautiful and peaceful Malay village called Kampung Morten. This area was once a mangrove swamp on a bend of the Malacca River, filled with mud crabs. In 1920, the nearby Kampung Jawa was forced to relocate due to land development. The village head, Dato' Othman Mohd Noh, asked the British Land Commissioner at the time, Frederick Joseph Morten, for help. Morten applied for a 10,000 Straits dollar loan from the government that same year, which was then used under Dato' Othman's leadership to buy land and build the village. The village was officially completed in 1922, and the villagers voted to name it Kampung Morten.

Today, Kampung Morten preserves 56 traditional Malay stilt houses and was listed as a heritage village in 1998. After a century of urban growth, the area is now part of downtown Malacca, making it the most convenient place in the city to experience the atmosphere of a Malay kampung.



















I encountered a Malay wedding in Kampung Morten where whole families came to eat together, which was very lively.













At a beautiful Malay house in Kampung Morten, the grandfather who owns the home chatted with us very warmly.

















The village has a small mosque called Surau Al Abidin with a cute pink exterior.





Several shops in the village serve traditional Malay kampung food, but they do not open until 5:30 in the evening. Some shops set their tables and chairs along the Malacca River, which is very pleasant.





The most worth-visiting Malay wooden house in Kampung Morten is Villa Sentosa, built in 1922 by Haji Hashim Abdul Ghani, who helped build the village. Haji Hashim's descendants still live here today, and they have kept many pieces of furniture and household items that are decades or even a century old. However, the opening hours are not fixed. If the owner is out, at prayer, or taking a nap, the house is closed. We were sorry to find the owner away when we visited, so we could only look around from the outside.



















The ancient Malay village of Kampung Ketek.

Behind the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, the oldest Chinese temple in the old town of Malacca, lies the equally ancient Malay village of Kampung Ketek. Kampung Ketek formed during the Dutch era in the 17th century. Although Malay villages within the old city of Malacca shrank rapidly after the 19th century due to the construction of shophouses, you can still see several well-preserved traditional Malay stilt houses in Kampung Ketek today. Abdullah bin Abdul al Kadir (1796-1854), known as the Father of Modern Malay Literature, was born here.

















Inside Kampung Ketek, you can see the tomb of Syed Syamsuddin Ibni Al Sumatrani, a famous scholar and national hero from the Aceh Sultanate in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Syamsuddin was a mufti (legal judge) and advisor to Sultan Iskandar Muda (reigned 1607-36) of the Aceh Sultanate in northern Sumatra. He was well-versed in religious knowledge and held a high position in the Sultan's court.

After the Portuguese occupied Malacca in 1511, the Aceh Sultanate kept attacking the Portuguese in an attempt to capture the city. During the reign of Sultan Iskandar Muda, the Aceh Sultanate was strong and powerful, with a fleet of heavy galleys, cavalry riding Persian horses, elephant corps, and thousands of cannons. In 1629, Sultan Iskandar sent a massive force of 236 warships and 19,000 men to Malacca, but they suffered a total defeat, with all soldiers killed or captured. Sang Sutin also died heroically in this battle and was eventually buried in Kampung Kuli in the old city of Malacca.











Two tombs of heroes from the Malacca Sultanate

Continuing south from Kampung Hulu Road, you enter the core area of the Malacca old city, a World Heritage site where the alleys are filled with murals related to the city's history.

















The Tomb of Hang Jebat (Makam Hang Jebat) in the old city of Malacca features the Aceh style from northern Sumatra, which was the common high-status architectural style for tombs during the Malacca Sultanate.

Hang Jebat was a famous Malay hero during the 15th-century Malacca Sultanate and one of the five heroes in the classic Malay novel Hikayat Hang Tuah. In the novel, the five heroes study martial arts together, serve the Malacca Sultan together, and earn his favor. Later, the Sultan of Malacca listens to slander and wants to kill Hang Tuah, so his brother Hang Jebat rebels against the Sultan to seek revenge. Eventually, the Sultan pardons Hang Tuah and sends him to fight a duel with Hang Jebat. After seven days of fighting, Hang Jebat dies in the arms of his former brother.

Since the 1960s, Hang Jebat has been portrayed in various plays and novels as a folk hero who resists tyranny and yearns for freedom, and many roads and buildings in Malaysia and Singapore are named after him.











Walking further west, you can see the tomb of Hang Kasturi, another of the five heroes of the Malacca Sultanate. In the Malay Annals (Sejarah Melayu), it is Hang Kasturi, not Hang Tuah, who ultimately kills Hang Jebat. This tomb has an Indian style and was likely built by later generations to commemorate Hang Kasturi.









Tomb of Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor

In the backyard of the Kampung Kling Mosque (Masjid Kampung Kling) lies the tomb of Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor (reigned 1819–1835), who played a key role in the founding of Singapore.

After the Portuguese occupied Malacca in 1511, the Sultan of Malacca fled to Johor to continue his rule. After the last Sultan of Malacca died in 1528, his son Alauddin Riayat Shah II officially established the Johor Sultanate, considering it the legitimate continuation of the Malacca Sultanate.

Hussein Shah was born in 1776 and was the eldest son of Sultan Mahmud Shah III of Johor. When Mahmud Shah III passed away in 1812, Hussein Shah was not in the capital, so his younger brother quickly took the throne with the support of ministers, forcing Hussein Shah into exile in the Riau Islands.

In 1819, the British East India Company decided to establish a new base in Southeast Asia. They found the exiled Hussein Shah and named him Sultan of Johor and Singapore in exchange for the right to establish a trading post in Singapore. Hussein Shah then came to Singapore and became a Sultan under British control.

In 1824, the British bought Singapore for 33,200 dollars, and Sultan Hussein Shah received a monthly payment of 1,300 dollars. He held no real power in Singapore and served only a symbolic role.

Sultan Hussein Shah lived in Singapore until 1834, then moved to Malacca with his family. He passed away in Malacca in 1835 and was buried at the Kampung Hulu Mosque (Dongjiena Si).















The Sultan's Well in Malacca

Travel east from the old town of Malacca to the foot of Bukit Cina, and you will find the Sultan's Well (Perigi Raja). Legend says it was built in 1459 by the sixth Sultan of Malacca, Mansur Shah, who reigned from 1459 to 1477.

According to the classic Malay text Sejarah Melayu, Sultan Mansur Shah built a palace at the foot of Bukit Cina to welcome a Ming Dynasty princess named Hang Li Po. He had this well dug specifically for her, which is why it is also called Hang Li Po's Well. However, there are no records of Princess Hang Li Po in Ming Dynasty or Portuguese documents, so her true identity remains a mystery.

Another theory suggests the well was dug by Zheng He's troops when they were stationed in Malacca during his voyages to the Western Ocean. Legend says Zheng He's troops dug seven wells at the foot of Bukit Cina. Five were destroyed by road construction in the 1950s and 1960s. Only two remain today: the Sultan's Well and the Sam Po Well (Sanbao Jing) in the backyard of the Poh San Teng Temple.

Legend has it that when the Portuguese invaded the Malacca Sultanate in 1511, Malay warriors poisoned the well to kill many Portuguese soldiers. In the early 17th century, both the Dutch and the Acehnese used the tactic of poisoning the well to eliminate their enemies.

After the Dutch occupied Malacca in 1641, they built a fortress-style wall around the Sultan's Well to protect the water source, complete with guard posts and cannons. The well was abandoned during the British colonial period, and the guard posts fell into disrepair.

















On the western slope of Bukit Cina lies a Malay village called Kampung Bukit Cina, where some traditional Malay stilt houses are still preserved.







The Hero's Well in Malacca

Hang Tuah's Well (Perigi Hang Tuah) is located in Kampung Duyong in eastern Malacca. It is said to have been dug by the Malacca Sultanate hero Hang Tuah and has never run dry. Malay people believe the well water has magical properties and can cure illnesses and ward off misfortune, making it a famous attraction in Malacca.



















The traditional Malay wooden house next to Hang Tuah's Well was first built in 1946. It was moved to its current site in 2001 after the original land was acquired. The owner, Samad Nordin, was originally a woodcarver, so he is skilled at maintaining wood. He performs maintenance on the house every five years.





















Inside the house hang portraits of the Nuh ship and the Nine Saints (Wali Sanga) who brought the faith to Southeast Asia. Wali refers to the Sufi saints. These nine figures came to Java 500 years ago to preach, which helped the faith gradually spread across Southeast Asia.

















Small Mosque in the Center of Malacca's Old Town

This small, newly built mosque in the center of Malacca's old town faces the Dutch Square and backs onto the Malacca River. The roof retains a traditional Javanese style. Inside the main hall, there are displays introducing various ancient mosques in Malacca, and a traditional drum used for the call to prayer sits in the center. Performing namaz in the mosque while feeling the breeze from the Malacca River brings a sense of calm, as if the noise outside no longer matters.













Malacca History Museum

A replica of the mythical bird boat (Perahu Burung Petalawati) is kept in the Malacca History Museum. The Perahu Burung Petalawati was a mythical bird boat used by Kelantan nobles for parades during circumcision ceremonies. After 1933, all of them were destroyed because they were seen as straying from the faith. Later, the tradition was preserved by the Malay community in Pattani, Thailand, though the celebrations are much smaller now.

The origins of this mythical bird go back to ancient Malay legends and Indian culture. It was likely influenced by the giant bird in the Malay epic Isma Dewa and the mythical bird Garuda from Indian mythology.





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Reposted from the web

Summary: This second part continues through Malay wooden houses and historic sites in Malacca, focusing on house forms, museum displays, and old neighborhood details. It keeps the original place names, photographs, architectural notes, and cultural context for readers exploring Malacca heritage.



A traditional wooden box used by the Malays in Malacca to open coconuts.



Attire worn during traditional Malay wedding ceremonies in Malacca from the 1940s to the 1960s.



The tombstone of Mansur Shah, the sixth Sultan of Malacca (reigned 1459-77), held in the collection of the Malacca History Museum.

Sultan Mansur Shah began the golden age of the Malacca Sultanate, and he was known as a knowledgeable, fair, and pious ruler. He followed an expansionist policy, occupying many areas including the Malay Peninsula, eastern Sumatra, Singapore, and Bintan Island, and he helped spread the faith widely across the Malay Peninsula through marriage alliances.

During his reign, Sultan Mansur Shah lowered trade taxes, charging 6% to Arab and Indian merchants from the west, 3% to local merchants, and exempting merchants from China, Japan, and Java, which made trade in Malacca more prosperous.

Sultan Mansur Shah was passionate about the faith and encouraged Sufi studies, personally studying under Maulana Abu Bakr and translating the famous commentary Ad Darrul Manzum into Malay.











The interior layout of a traditional Malay wooden house recreated at the Malacca History Museum feels quite authentic. The exhibition hall also has a map showing the locations of typical Malay wooden houses in Malacca, so interested friends (dosti) can follow the map to visit them in person.















The Malacca History Museum houses a set of three enamel incense burners and vases, and there is a statue of Zheng He in the museum courtyard. The museum also features a painting of the Ming Emperor Chengzu sending his envoy Yin Qing to issue an imperial decree to the Sultan of Malacca in 1403 (the first year of the Yongle era).



















Muzium Budaya Melayu dan Islam Melaka (Malacca Malay and Islamic World Museum).

A glimpse into what life looked like during the Malacca Sultanate era.









Tepak Sireh is a metal container for storing betel nut, used when welcoming guests, during traditional dances, and in royal ceremonies.



Traditional Malay clothing.







Traditional Malay manuscripts.



Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum.

The Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum, a reconstruction of the palace from the reign of Sultan Mansur Shah (1459-77) built in 1984 based on records in the Malay Annals.

















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Reposted from the web

Summary: This article visits the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, a major museum set inside a former palace and known for its historical collections and mosaics. It keeps the original museum details, photographs, object notes, and travel observations for readers interested in Tunisia's cultural heritage.

The National Museum of Tunisia is located inside the Bardo Palace, 4 kilometers west of the old Medina. The palace was first built in the 15th century. After the Ottoman dynasty took over in the 16th century, it was rebuilt and expanded many times, eventually becoming the main residence of the Husainid Beys (1705-1957).

The Husainid dynasty was a Beylik nominally under the Ottoman Empire. Its founder, Husain, was an Ottoman officer of Greek Cretan descent. He was granted the title of Bey by the Ottoman Sultan in 1705 and began his rule over Tunisia. After the 19th century, the Husainid dynasty began trading heavily with European merchants, and in 1861, they issued the first constitution in the Arab world. However, economic decline and social unrest in the late 19th century led to Tunisia becoming a French protectorate in 1881.

In 1882, Tunisia and France jointly established the Tunisian Office of Antiquities and Arts, which immediately began converting the old harem of the Bardo Palace into a museum. After six years of restoration and collecting, the museum officially opened in 1888.

The museum houses the Small Palace, built by Husain II Bey between 1824 and 1835. The palace was built in the Andalusian Moorish style, featuring a T-shaped main hall and a central courtyard with a pool.





















Tile and plaster decorations inside the Small Palace of Husain II.



















The reception hall and harem built by Muhammad III Bey between 1859 and 1864 feature both Italian and Tunisian styles.

Muhammad III Bey issued the first written constitution in the Arab world in 1861, which separated executive, legislative, and judicial powers and guaranteed equal rights for Muslims, Christians, and Jews. After the new constitution was issued, European merchants and secular schools began to appear in Tunisia.



















The Blue Quran manuscript in the National Museum of Tunisia is a very famous religious manuscript in the world. This scripture uses parchment dyed with indigo, with ink outlining the text and gold leaf applied on top. The calligraphy is in the early Kufic script, which lacks sharp angles and vowel marks.

The origin of the Blue Quran is still highly debated, with theories pointing to Kairouan in Tunisia, Cordoba in Spain, Mashhad in Iran, or Iraq, dating back to the 9th or 10th century. The records say the Blue Quran was kept in the Great Mosque of Kairouan after the 14th century. It was broken up during the Ottoman period, but most of it remains in Kairouan, while other parts are held by major museums and collectors.













Quran manuscripts from the 8th to 12th centuries held by the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia.

The library of the Great Mosque of Kairouan holds a large number of manuscripts and established a catalog as early as the 13th century. to scriptures, these manuscripts include books related to the Maliki school of thought, which are also the oldest documents of the Maliki school.

















Tunisian Qallaline tiles from the 17th and 18th centuries. These tiles are named after the Qallaline region of Tunisia. They were influenced by Ottoman tile art but developed their own unique style.

























A marble carving from the 10th-century Fatimid period in Mahdia, Tunisia, depicting a Fatimid prince. A glazed bowl with Kufic script from the Fatimid dynasty period in Mahdia.

The ancient city of Mahdia was built by the Fatimid dynasty between 916 and 921, and it became the capital of the Tunisia region after its completion. Before this, the capital of the Tunisia region was Kairouan, which was dominated by Sunnis. Because of this, the Shia Fatimid dynasty built a new capital on the Mediterranean coast, far away from Kairouan. Once finished, Mahdia included thick city walls, palaces, a harbor, and a great mosque. Unfortunately, none of the surface buildings survived. Now, you can only see artifacts unearthed through archaeological excavations in museums.





Exquisite 11th-century marble carvings with Kufic script.



A 10th-century wood carving from Egypt.



A 13th to 16th-century tombstone from Tunisia where you can see the local style of Arabic calligraphy.





















A traditional Tunisian women's headpiece.















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Reposted from the web

Summary: This first part introduces eight historic mosques in Malacca, including their dates, layouts, and role in the city's Muslim community. It keeps the original mosque names, photographs, architectural details, and travel observations for readers interested in Malaysia's Islamic heritage.

Kampung Hulu Mosque: 1728.

Tengkera Small Mosque minaret (bangker): 1728.

Tengkera Mosque: 1782.

Kampung Kling Mosque: 1748.

Bukit Cina Mosque: 1865.

Pengkalan Rama Mosque: first built in the 1730s, rebuilt in 1917.

Duyong Mosque: 1859.

Serkam Pantai Mosque: 1853.

Peringgit Mosque: first built in 1726, rebuilt in 1868.

Kampung Hulu Mosque.

After the Portuguese occupied Malacca, they destroyed all the mosques of the Malacca Sultanate and promoted Catholicism in the city. However, the Portuguese were not successful, and Catholicism did not have much influence in Malacca until the Dutch took over.

The Dutch took a more tolerant approach toward Malacca and allowed the faith to spread there. In 1728, the Dutch East India Company commissioned a Chinese Muslim, Dato' Samsuddin Bin Arom, to build a new mosque near the site of an old one destroyed by the Portuguese. This became the Kampung Hulu Mosque (Masjid Kampung Hulu), the oldest surviving mosque in Malacca.

The main prayer hall of Kampung Hulu Mosque uses the traditional Javanese Tajug multi-layered pyramid roof. The decoration at the very top is called a Mustoko or Memolo in Javanese. This roof structure leaves space between the upper and middle layers for ventilation and light, which adapts well to the humid and rainy tropical climate.

Unlike traditional all-wood Javanese mosques, Kampung Hulu Mosque is built of brick and stone with plaster-coated roofs, an influence from Dutch colonial architecture. the tiles and floor bricks inside the mosque were all imported from China, and the patterns on the windows also show Chinese influence.

A traditional drum called a Beduk is placed above the main gate. Early mosques in Southeast Asia used drums to call people to prayer. Today, many mosques still use drums to call for prayer and to signal the breaking of the fast during Jumu'ah and Ramadan.

The minaret (bangker) looks like a lighthouse, which was a first for the Malay Peninsula, as there was no previous tradition of building minarets there. On the island of Java, the Great Mosque of Banten, built in 1632, was the first to feature a lighthouse-style minaret designed and built by a Chinese man named Cek-ban-cut.



















The minbar inside the main hall of Kampung Hulu Mosque has rich patterns and is in the typical Javanese throne style.



















I performed the Dhuhr and Maghrib namaz at Kampung Hulu Mosque and also attended the night praise sessions during the Mawlid. There are two cannons at the entrance of the main hall, which are used during the Eid festival. The number '1211' is engraved on the cannon barrel, which corresponds to the year 1796 in the Gregorian calendar.



















The minaret (bangke lou) of the Tengkera Small Mosque.

After the Kampung Hulu Mosque was built, an Indian merchant named Muhammad Salleh funded the construction of a small mosque (Surau Tengkera) on Tengkera Street. Tengkera comes from the Portuguese word 'tranquerah,' meaning 'fortress,' as there was once a defensive wall built by the Portuguese here. The Tengkera Small Mosque was also built in 1728. It was originally a wooden structure with pillars made of ironwood (belian) from Pontianak, Kalimantan, and a roof covered with nipa palm leaves.

After the Tengkera Mosque (Masjid Tengkera) was completed in 1782, the Tengkera Small Mosque was abandoned, and today only the minaret remains. Unlike the Kampung Hulu Mosque, the minaret of the Tengkera Small Mosque is modeled after a Chinese pagoda. This was the first of its kind on the Malay Peninsula and has become a major feature of Malacca today.



















Tengkera Mosque.

In 1782, the Tengkera Mosque (Masjid Tengkera) was completed to the west of the Tengkera Small Mosque. The Tengkera Mosque also features a traditional Javanese three-tiered pyramid roof (bumbung tiga lapis), and the main hall is supported by four ironwood pillars from Kalimantan. After two renovations in 1890 and 1910, the current Tengkera Mosque has brick walls and a tiled roof. The minaret of the Tengkera Mosque, like that of the Tengkera Small Mosque, is a Chinese-style pagoda structure and serves as a continuation of the earlier minaret.



















The exquisite minbar (pulpit) of the Tengkera Mosque is also in the Javanese throne style.



















Kampung Kling Mosque.

The Kampung Kling Mosque (Masjid Kampong Kling) is located in the center of Malacca city. It was first built by Indian merchants in 1748 and was converted from a wooden structure to the current brick structure in 1872. The mosque features a traditional Javanese three-tiered pyramid roof (bumbung tiga lapis). The classical Corinthian columns between the main hall and the prayer niche (mihrab), as well as the plaster walls, show the influence of Dutch colonists. The Chinese tiles on the roof, floor, and walls, along with the wood carvings on the doors and windows, reflect Chinese influence.

Legend has it that during the Malacca Sultanate, Kampung Kling was a settlement for Indian Muslim merchants. 'Kling' was the historical term used in the Malay Archipelago for Indians, especially Tamils. On a 1690 map of Malacca, this area is marked as 'Mosquée de Maures' (Moorish Mosque), but its relationship to the Kampung Kling Mosque is uncertain. In the 18th century, this was still a village for South Indian immigrants. After the rubber industry in Malacca boomed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it became a residential area for Chinese people working in the rubber industry. Today, the mosque is surrounded by Chinese shophouses.



















The Kampung Kling Mosque has a beautiful minbar and wood carvings on its doors and windows; the minbar is also in the Javanese throne style.



















Sanbao Hill Mosque.

Bukit Cina Mosque (Masjid Bukit Cina), also called Al-Hamideen Mosque, was built in 1865. A new main hall was added in 1978, but the layout of the original old hall remains. The old hall features a traditional Javanese-style three-tiered pyramid roof (bumbung tiga lapis) and four wooden pillars (Soko Guru). Each pillar connects to the foundation with a stone base called Umpak. These bases keep the wood from soaking up groundwater and help absorb shock during earthquakes.



















Pengkalan Rama Mosque

Pengkalan Rama Mosque was first built in the 1730s. Dato Penghulu Abdul Ghani funded its renovation in 1917. A new main hall was added in 2004, but it still keeps the traditional Javanese-style three-tiered pyramid roof (bumbung tiga lapis) and four wooden pillars (Soko Guru) of the old hall.



















Duyong Mosque

Duyong Mosque (Masjid Duyong) was built in 1850 under the leadership of Wan Chilek. It was originally made of laterite and wood, with a roof made of Chinese and Dutch tiles. In 1908, a minaret (bangkar) was added, blending the styles of a Chinese pagoda and a Western lighthouse.

The mosque underwent several renovations and expansions in 1967, 1973, and 1976. It suffered a fire in 1982 and was later restored. In 2002, the Department of Museums and Antiquities of Malaysia carried out protective repairs on the site.





























Telok Mas Mosque

At Telok Mas Mosque (Masjid Telok Mas Al-Khairiah) for namaz. Telok Mas Mosque was built in 1853. During construction, the beams and roof materials were cut from local forests and hauled by water buffalo. The wall stones were mined from reefs near Big Island (Pulau Besar) and transported by sampan boats. The main gate still bears an inscription from the year 1269 of the Hijri calendar, which is 1853 in the Gregorian calendar. A Chinese pagoda-style minaret (bangkar) was added in 1913. Its architectural style is basically the same as the mosques in Kampung Kling and Tengkera.



















The minbar pulpit at Telok Mas Mosque is carved with the year 1286 of the Hijri calendar, or 1869 in the Gregorian calendar, and is a classic Javanese throne style.













Peringgit Mosque

Peringgit Mosque (Masjid Peringgit) was first built in 1726 but was later destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1868. Peringgi is the Malay name for the Portuguese, as a Portuguese fort once stood here. Peringgit Mosque was originally built with granite and Dutch bricks, with wooden doors and windows. The roof is a traditional Javanese three-tiered pyramid (bumbung tiga lapis). The bottom layer is covered with Chinese tiles, while the middle and top layers use Dutch tiles. The very top decoration is carved from reef stone.

Following later renovations, the Dutch bricks of Peringgit Mosque were covered with cement, and the Chinese and Dutch tiles were replaced with modern ones. In 2002, the Southern Region Department of Museums and Antiquities of Malaysia restored the site.

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Reposted from the web

Summary: This second part continues a visit to eight historic mosques in Malacca, with attention to architecture, dates, and local Muslim heritage. It keeps the original mosque names, photographs, street details, and historical notes for readers interested in Islamic heritage in Malaysia.















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Reposted from the web

Summary: This second Beijing halal restaurant guide covers ten Muslim restaurants worth trying, with practical notes on dishes, locations, and everyday eating. It keeps the original restaurant names, dishes, photographs, and food comments for readers looking for halal meals in Beijing.

10 halal restaurants in Beijing worth visiting, part one: Lahore Courtyard, Maimai Red Beef Sliced Noodles, Hulun Aile, Tribe Garden, Xing Laosi Meatball Spicy Soup, Jinying Meatball Soup, Hotan Canteen Open-Air Night Market, BRBR Blue Harbor Branch, Gulou Noodles, and Xilaishun.

10 new restaurants in Beijing this year: Sultan Turkish Restaurant Beijing Branch, Fang Zhongshan Spicy Soup Hujialou Branch, Zhang Dahui Spicy Soup, Yuwei Xiaoyao Town Spicy Soup, Qinyuanzhai Fresh Braised Duck Shop, Subuha Almond Tofu Jiaodaokou Branch, Shawarma City, Tomato Casual Western Restaurant Super Hopson One Branch, and Yali Jiji Courtyard.

Part two restaurants: Alkhaleej Mandi Kitchen, Xinjiang Mansion Xihan Meatball Soup, Xinjiang Mansion Lobby Altay Afternoon Tea, Muhejia Revolving Hot Pot Mudanyuan Branch, Nazilan at Ritan Street, Baoyuanzhai Heping Guoju Branch, Samosa China-Pakistan Friendship Restaurant Sanlitun Branch, Deshengmenwai Maye Roast Duck, Benjiebi Restaurant, and Shihu Cheng Resort.

Alkhaleej Mandi Kitchen.

The newly opened Alkhaleej Mandi Kitchen in Sanlitun SOHO takes its name from 'Khaleej,' which means the Persian Gulf. They specialize in Arabian Peninsula flavors and serve a variety of Yemeni dishes. After Guangzhou, Yiwu, and Tianjin, Beijing is now the fourth city in China to have Yemeni food.

I ordered the clay pot stew (saltah) with Arabic flatbread (mulawah), which is a classic Yemeni brunch combination. After ordering, they brought out meat broth, cucumber yogurt, lemon, onions, and spicy sauce (sahawiq), which is very authentic. Sahawiq is a signature Yemeni spicy sauce made with fresh chili peppers, olive oil, cilantro, garlic, salt, cumin, and parsley for a unique taste.

Saltah is a classic Yemeni stew that originated from the charity kitchens (imaret) during the Ottoman Empire. Back then, wealthy people or the mosque would stew leftovers in a clay pot, and this meat and vegetable dish became known as saltah. Saltah is popular in northern Yemen, and the main ingredient is meat stew (maraq), which is cooked until very tender, along with potatoes and fenugreek. Fenugreek is what people in Northwest China often call fragrant beans (xiangdouzi) or bitter beans (kudouzi). People in the Northwest dry the leaves and grind them into powder to steam buns, while Yemenis grind the seeds to stew with meat. Fenugreek seeds expand when they meet water and easily foam up when stirred in a bowl.

Their Arabic flatbread is truly large, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Arabic flatbread is traditionally baked in an earthen oven (tannur) and is full of wheat aroma. You can tear the bread apart to scoop up the clay pot stew with the spicy sauce, or soak it in the meat broth; both ways are delicious.

In short, their Yemeni food is very authentic. I was very satisfied with the meal. Be careful, as the clay pot stew is very hot. Eat slowly so you don't burn your tongue.



















Xinjiang Mansion Xihan Meatball Soup.

After visiting the zoo on Sunday afternoon, we had Xihan meatball soup at Xinjiang Mansion. It only takes about ten minutes to walk from the zoo to Xinjiang Mansion, which is very convenient.

I didn't expect this place to be so popular now. Even arriving between two and three in the afternoon, there were still so many people. It seems everyone is living on Xinjiang time. We ordered meatball soup (wanzi tang), layered steamed buns (youtazi), smoked horse sausage (xun machang), spicy numbing chicken (jiaoma ji), pit-roasted lamb chops (nangkeng yangpai), and rose-flavored flatbread (meigui nang).

First, their spicy numbing chicken is very authentic. The meat is firm because they use layer hens instead of broilers. It is also very numbing. I ate one piece and my whole mouth started tingling. Their pit-roasted lamb chops are also delicious and the meat is very tender. They use a southern Xinjiang method of brushing it with salt water instead of sauce or egg wash. This kind of salt-water roasting really tests the quality of the meat. Their meatball soup is a bit more ordinary by comparison. The broth tastes great, but there are very few meat slices and meatballs. Their layered steamed buns are made with fenugreek powder (xiangdou fen), which is my first time trying.



















Altay afternoon tea in the lobby of the Xinjiang Building.

I took my son to the zoo on Sunday and stopped by the Xinjiang Building lobby for some Altay afternoon tea. The set includes salty milk tea, milk skin (naipi), milk strips (naitiao), roasted millet (chaomi), apricot jam, strawberry jam, cream, and fried dough fritters (baorsak). The fried dough fritters are served hot. They taste great when you break them open and add jam. Adding roasted millet and milk skin to the milk tea makes it very rich. Now you can enjoy a Kazakh milk tea house experience without going back to Urumqi, though the milk in Beijing isn't quite as fresh as in Xinjiang.

They also have the popular 'nang cup' (wonangfei) coffee. You can get it with coffee, yogurt, or tea. The sesame flatbread (nang) itself tastes good, and you can buy the cups separately.



















Muhejia Rotating Hot Pot Mudanyuan branch.

After the Mudanyuan Muhejia Rotating Hot Pot was demolished, it reopened in the storefronts of the building across the street. The new shop has a better environment, and the dishes remain the same. We ordered mushroom broth, nourishing broth, tomato broth, and pickled cabbage broth, and we had a very comfortable meal.













Nazilan at Ritan Shangjie.

We originally wanted to go to Nazilan at Ritan Shangjie for Xinjiang-style clay pot hot pot (they should be the only place in Beijing that has it), but when we arrived, they said it wasn't available, so we didn't get to eat it. So we ordered spicy chicken (lazi ji), minced meat noodles (suirou banmian), meat dumplings (ququr), grilled meat (kaorou), liver wrapped in fat (youbao gan), minced meat thin pancakes (suirou bing), and yogurt.

The quality was highly praised by our whole family. Everyone thought their spicy chicken was well-made, even better than Yangle Spicy Chicken in Urumqi. The chicken had no gamey smell and was very spicy.

The noodles are made with egg-infused dough and topped with a fried egg. The texture of the hand-pulled noodles is great, and the minced meat is very fragrant. It would be considered very good noodles even in Urumqi.

The meat dumplings were for Suleiman. They were very authentic, with thin skins and plenty of meat. Suleiman ate over a dozen in one go.

Their grilled meat (kaorou) and liver wrapped in fat (youbaogan) are both very tender and seasoned just right.

Their yogurt is likely the best on the entire Ritan Shangjie street. It is rich, creamy, and tangy, far better than the neighboring Xinjiang restaurants, and it pairs perfectly with the spicy chicken (lazi ji). I honestly don't think the Xinjiang-brand yogurts sold in Beijing's supermarkets and dairy shops represent the true quality of real Xinjiang yogurt. If you want to taste the kind of yogurt Xinjiang locals drink every day, this place is a pretty good choice.

Also, when we went around 6 or 7 p.m. on Sunday, the atmosphere was quite nice. Everyone was eating quietly, which made for a very comfortable experience. Some of the other Xinjiang restaurants nearby get very noisy at night with people drinking and talking loudly, which can be a bit overwhelming while you eat.



















Baoyuanzhai at Heping Guoju

Baoyuanzhai, a halal pastry shop from Wanziying in Chaoyang District, has opened a branch at Heping Guoju on the second basement floor of the Wangfujing Department Store. The decor is very old-school. They have a variety of traditional and modern pastries, including both sugar-free and regular options. They also have savory and scallion-flavored walnut cookies (taosu). You can buy them individually or in gift boxes, making them perfect for tourists to try.

As the weather gets cooler, there are fewer people in Heping Guoju than before, making it a better time to bring kids. There is a steam locomotive and a 'Night Shanghai' stage, both of which kept my son entertained for a long time.

























Samosa China-Pakistan Friendship Restaurant, Sanlitun Branch

At noon, I went to the newly opened Samosa China-Pakistan Friendship Restaurant in Sanlitun, located on Dongzhimen Outer Street, for the buffet. The restaurant is on the first floor of the Atour Hotel. They mainly serve various curries, with biryani fried rice, garlic naan, and butter naan as staples. For dessert, they have halwa (a sweet confection), and their classic drink is a mint cooler.

Their most unique feature is the grilled meat buffet! Once the beef skewers are grilled, they bring them to each table before hanging them up. They also have a secret menu item: extra-large lamb skewers, which are grilled until very tender and delicious.

Since I brought my son, we picked out a few non-spicy options for him. His favorites were the tikka boti (clay oven grilled chicken chunks) and the halwa. Halwa originated in Persia and later spread throughout the Middle East and South Asia. South Asian halwa is made from semolina. It has a smooth, buttery texture and is just the right level of sweet.

Their spinach and paneer (milk curd) is also worth trying. Paneer is a type of South Asian fresh cheese. The name comes from the Persian word 'panir' for cheese. To make it, you add lemon, vinegar, or dahi (yogurt) to hot milk, strain the curds through a cloth, and soak them in cold water to create fresh paneer. Paneer has a texture similar to tofu and isn't very sour, making it great for children.





















Maye Roast Duck outside Deshengmen

Traffic outside Deshengmen forced me to turn into a small alley in Dewai Guanxiang, where I unexpectedly found a newly opened roast duck shop right next to Pamir Restaurant (Pamir Shifu). Halal roast duck is definitely rare, so I quickly bought half a duck to try, along with salt and pepper duck frame and salt-water duck liver. They only have a service window, so you have to take the food home to eat.

I tried the roast duck after getting home; it tasted pretty good, was all lean meat, and had a slightly sweet flavor. At noon, I ordered their half-set roast duck again. It was much cheaper with a discount on Meituan, making it a great value and perfect for a work lunch. The only downside is that delivery makes the skin soggy, so it definitely isn't as fragrant as when it's freshly made.

















Benjiebi Restaurant

I took Suleiman shopping at the Kids' City in Solana, and afterward, we had lunch at the South Asian restaurant Benjiebi on Lucky Street, right across from Solana. The owner is from Bangladesh, and the food leans toward North Indian style. Compared to the long lines at restaurants inside Solana, the places on Lucky Street are much less crowded.

Benjiebi is a long-standing South Asian spot in Beijing. I used to go there often for their weekday lunch set, which is a great deal. They now offer a Liangma River night cruise package, which we want to try if we get the chance.

They thoughtfully mark all the dishes suitable for children on their menu. We ordered grilled broccoli with cheese (Broccolli phool Malai Paneer), butter chicken (Murgh Butter Chicken), saffron rice, mint whole-wheat flatbread (Pudina Wholewheat Paratha), mint rose syrup (Mint Roohafza), and salty yogurt drink (Lassi Salty).

The paneer in the grilled cheese dish is a South Asian fresh cheese. The name comes from the Persian word 'panir'. It is made by adding lemon, vinegar, or yogurt (Dahi) to hot milk, then draining the curds in cloth and soaking them in cold water to create fresh paneer. The texture of paneer is a bit like firm tofu, and it isn't very sour, making it perfect for kids.

Butter chicken (Murgh Butter Chicken) was invented by chance in the 1950s at the Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi when they put roasted chicken into a buttery tomato curry sauce. It became a classic South Asian dish worldwide after the 1970s. Their butter chicken isn't spicy, so it's an Indian curry that even children can try.

Mint whole-wheat flatbread (Pudina Wholewheat Paratha) is rare in Beijing's South Asian restaurants and is a classic North Indian staple. It is made by folding mint into the layers of whole-wheat dough. It comes out very crispy and is especially fragrant when eaten hot.

Their mint rose syrup is also very tasty. RoohAfza is a classic South Asian Ramadan drink, invented in 1906 by an Indian Muslim from British India named Hakim Hafiz Abdul Majeed, based on traditional Arab-Persian Unani medicine. He selected various herbs and fruit syrups to create a concentrated drink to prevent heatstroke, which is very helpful for relieving dehydration during fasting. After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, his descendants opened companies in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, making RoohAfza popular all over South Asia.

Suleiman really loves their salty milk shake (xian naixi), he got hooked and could not stop drinking it.



















Shihucheng Resort

In the evening, we went to Shihucheng Resort near the Huanghuacheng Lakeside Great Wall in Huairou for dinner. The place is run by Hui Muslims from Changying, and they specialize in rainbow trout, along with various home-style dishes. Rainbow trout needs very high-quality water and can only survive in flowing water, so you rarely find it in city restaurants; you have to go into the mountains of Huairou to eat live fish.

We ordered grilled rainbow trout, braised rainbow trout (kuadun hongtunyu), jasmine buds (moliya), stewed small free-range chicken, green beans with dough rolls (doujiao nianjuanzi), brine-marinated firm tofu (lushui laodoufu), farm-style scrambled eggs, and cornmeal flatbreads (tiebingzi). Since we had a baby with us, we specifically asked the owner for no spice and less salt, and the final result suited our tastes perfectly. The grilled rainbow trout was very fresh, and the braised rainbow trout was very flavorful; both ways of cooking are worth trying. It was my first time eating jasmine buds, and they were very refreshing served as a cold salad. Their menu also lists mixed willow buds, but you can only eat them when they are in season. The other dishes were also delicious, and I liked the green beans with dough rolls the best; the rolls were so fragrant after soaking up the juices from the stewed beans and meat.

However, their hygiene definitely cannot compare to the city, especially the baby chair which was very greasy, and the spoons were not washed well either. Friends who are particular about cleanliness should think carefully before going.

The scenery near Shihucheng Resort is beautiful, the Huaijiu River is very clear, and the air is very fresh. Their accommodation is very cheap, you can walk to the Huanghuacheng Lakeside Great Wall, and they provide halal breakfast; when we went, we saw many older folks staying there.

















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Reposted from the web

Summary: This article visits the Lingshan Holy Tomb in Quanzhou, one of the city's key Islamic heritage sites linked to early Muslim history on China's coast. It keeps the original tomb details, inscriptions, photographs, names, and historical context for readers studying Quanzhou Muslim heritage.

Lingshan Holy Tomb is in the east of Quanzhou city, also known as the Tomb of the Three and Four Sages. The story of the Three and Four Sages mainly comes from the Min Shu: Fang Yu Zhi written by He Qiaoyuan in 1629 (the second year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty). The Min Shu quotes a legend that four disciples of the Prophet Muhammad came to the Tang Dynasty to spread the faith during the Wude period (618-626). One sage went to Guangzhou, two went to Yangzhou, and the third and fourth went to Quanzhou. After the third and fourth sages passed away, they were buried in Quanzhou, where their graves glowed at night, making them holy sites.

In reality, Lingshan was a burial ground for monks from Chengtian Mosque from the Five Dynasties period to the Southern Song Dynasty. It was only abandoned after Chengtian Mosque failed in its resistance against the Yuan Dynasty at the end of the Southern Song. According to the Record of Burying Foreign Merchants at Dongban in Quanzhou by Lin Zhiqi, a Southern Song official, a merchant from the ancient Iranian port of Siraf followed the suggestion of Pu Xiasin to donate money and buy land to build the first tomb for foreign merchants at Dongban in Quanzhou. The cemetery was started in 1162 (the 32nd year of the Shaoxing reign of the Southern Song) and finished in 1163 (the first year of the Longxing reign).

The holy tomb has a stone tablet from the Yuan Dynasty dated 1322, written in Arabic, which says: These two deceased came to this land during the time of the Faghur. It is said they were men of great virtue, so after death, they moved from the earthly world to the eternal one. According to research by Chen Dasheng in A Preliminary Study of the Date of Lingshan Holy Tomb in Quanzhou, Faghur is an Arabic transliteration of the Persian word Bagh pur, which specifically referred to the Emperor of China in Persian literature from the Five Dynasties to the Song and Yuan periods.

According to the Quanzhou Prefecture Gazetteer, when Zhou Daoguang, the prefect of Quanzhou, visited Lingshan Holy Tomb in 1562 (the 41st year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty), he mentioned there were three mounds, which were the holy tombs. The Min Shu Chao, written during the Chongzhen reign, records that the owner of the third tomb was Gao Di Shi Xu Ba Ba. In the 1930s, the wooden frame of the pavilion at Lingshan Holy Tomb had collapsed, leaving only four stone shuttle-shaped pillars. At that time, the three Sumeru-style stone tombs arranged in a triangle were still well-preserved, with stone covers on top.

In 1958, the Quanzhou Cultural Bureau and the municipal committee moved the tombstone of Gao Di Shi Xu Ba Ba to the northern hillside to fit the legend in the Min Shu. At the same time, they moved the tombstone of the imam Ma Ahun Yongchun (Ma Yongchun) from the south of the holy tomb to the northern hillside. In March 1959, a new stone pavilion was built with three levels of terraces and stairs on both sides. All other tombstones in front of the graves were removed to create a lawn, forming the layout seen today.

The holy tomb currently has two granite graves divided into three layers, with lotus petal carvings on the bottom layer. In the past, during Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, Hui Muslims in Quanzhou would attend prayers at Qingjing Mosque. First, an imam would lead the heads of households to visit the homes of other Hui Muslims near the mosque for a greeting, and then all the Hui Muslims would go together to visit the graves at Lingshan. When visiting the graves, they would first recite the Quran together at the holy tomb before going to their own family graves.



















The archway and gate in front of Lingshan Holy Tomb, the banyan trees on Lingshan Avenue, and the national and provincial heritage site markers, introduction boards, and notices at the holy tomb.



















The historical stone tablets at Lingshan Holy Tomb.

The Incense Offering Tablet: This records the visit of Zheng He to the graves before his fifth voyage to the Western Oceans in 1417 (the 15th year of the Yongle reign), erected by the commander Pu Heri. The name Hulumesi carved on the tablet refers to the ancient Persian port of Hormuz.



The Chen Yougong Repair Tablet: Erected in 1714 (the 53rd year of the Kangxi reign), it records the repair of Lingshan Holy Tomb by Chen Yougong, a regional commander in Fujian, and Chen Mei, a regional military official. The inscription below lists seven surnames: Chen, Ma, Guo, Huang, Li, Yang, Pu, and Ding.



The Xia Bidi Repair Tablet: Records the repair of the holy tomb by the director Xia Bidi in 1751 (the 16th year of the Qianlong reign).



The Guo Bacui Repair Tablet: Records the repair of the holy tomb by the scholar Guo Bacui in 1783 (the 48th year of the Qianlong reign). Guo Bacui was a Hui Muslim from the Guo family in Baiqi. He passed the military examination in 1779 (the 40th year of the Qianlong reign), was awarded the rank of military officer, and served in the Anping Left Battalion in Taiwan. When he erected the tablet in 1783, he was stationed in Xiamen and ordered to patrol the coastal areas of Taiwan and Penghu. In 1787 (the 52nd year of the Qianlong reign), the Lin Shuangwen uprising in Taiwan besieged Zhuluo County. Guo Bacui was ordered to rush to the rescue and died on the battlefield.





The Ma Jianji renovation stele records that in 1818 (the 23rd year of the Jiaqing reign), Ma Jianji, the acting commander-in-chief of the Fujian provincial land forces and general of Zhangzhou from Western Sichuan, rebuilt the tomb pavilion. The stele calls the Holy Tomb the 'Baba Tomb,' with 'Baba' being the Persian term of respect for an elder. Ma Jianji was from Nanchong, Sichuan. Besides renovating the Lingshan Holy Tomb, he also renovated the Qingjing Mosque in Quanzhou.



The Jiang Changgui renovation stele records that in 1871 (the 10th year of the Tongzhi reign), Fujian commander Jiang Changgui renovated the Holy Tomb. Jiang Changgui was a Hui Muslim from Yanting, Sichuan. His family practiced martial arts for generations. He was brave in battle, led troops against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for many years, earned many military merits, and was titled Zhiyong Baturu and General Jianwei. Besides renovating the Lingshan Holy Tomb, he also renovated the Qingjing Mosque and invited the army imam Ma Yongchun to lead religious affairs.



Beside the Holy Tomb is a 'Wind-Moving Stone' (fengdongshi). It features the inscription 'Jade Ball' (biyu qiu) by Quanzhou prefect Zhou Daoguang in 1563 (the 42nd year of the Jiajing reign) and 'Natural Ingenuity' (tianran jimiyao) by Ma Jianji in 1818 (the 23rd year of the Jiaqing reign).

Zhou Daoguang was the first person to record the term 'Lingshan Holy Tomb'. The Quanzhou Prefecture Gazetteer, Mountains and Rivers, Lingshan section records: 'Asking the locals, they say: This is the Lingshan Holy Tomb... Since the religion from foreign lands entered the Middle Kingdom, there have been Hui Muslims.' Its founder's surname and generation are unknown, but he loved this hill and was buried here...' He also described the tomb's layout at the time: 'Entering the gate, the path is very narrow.' Climbing to the hall, the atmosphere feels different. Reaching the top, there are three mounds, which are the Holy Tombs. In front of the tomb, there is a small pavilion on the right for namaz. On the left, there is a shed where one can rest.





In 1958, when the Fuzhou-Xiamen highway outside the East Gate of Quanzhou was widened, several Song and Yuan dynasty Muslim pedestal-style tomb stones by the road were moved next to the Lingshan Holy Tomb. That same year, farmers in Jintoupu village outside Tonghuai Gate in Quanzhou were collecting fertilizer and dredging pond sludge. They unearthed over ten pedestal-style tomb stones, which were temporarily moved to the Qingjing Mosque and later moved to the Lingshan Holy Tomb for preservation. That same year, residents on Tonghuai Street in Quanzhou unearthed three side-by-side pedestal-style tomb stones while building a house, which were also moved to the Lingshan Holy Tomb for preservation.

















The image below is likely the tomb stone of Gaodi Shixu Baba, which was originally with the 'Three Sages and Four Sages' tomb stones and moved here during the 1958 renovation.



Details of the Arabic stone carving. The content of the carving is entirely scripture, with no identity information about the tomb owner. According to Quanzhou's Song and Yuan dynasty traditions, the tomb stone recording the owner's identity would have been a separate slab.



















Next to the Lingshan Holy Tomb is the cemetery for local Quanzhou Hui Muslims. The Ge, Ma, and Huang families are descendants of the generations of imams from the Qingjing Mosque. They mostly worked in the leather industry in the past and lived inside the Qingjing Mosque until 1983. In the past, Quanzhou Hui Muslims would come here to visit the graves every Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. When visiting the graves, first light some incense (anxixiang), then trace the carvings on the tombstone with red paint, and finally invite an imam to recite scriptures.

In the tomb complex, you can see the ancestral graves of the Huang family from Jiangxia and the Huang family from Yanshan. The Jiangxia Huang family ancestral grave is inscribed with 'Mosque Huang Residence,' while the Yanshan Huang family grave bears inscriptions like 'First Year of the Xuantong Reign' and 'Imperially Appointed Fifth-Rank Official... Land Route Commander...' which are hard to read completely due to the red paint.



















According to their family records, the Guo family of Hui Muslims originally lived in Guo Family Village in Fuyang, Hangzhou, before arriving in Quanzhou during the Yuan Dynasty. During the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, Guo Zhongyuan moved from Quanzhou to Baiqipu on the opposite side of Houzhu Port, which eventually became the present-day Baiqi Hui Ethnic Township. The Baiqi Guo family left the faith in 1607 (the 35th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty). In 1709 (the 48th year of the Kangxi reign), Chen Yougong, a regional commander and left-wing general for the Fujian Ting, Yan, and Shao areas, came to Quanzhou to revive the faith and established scripture hall education at the Qingjing Mosque. At that time, Guo Honglong, a member of the eighth generation of the Guo family's fourth branch, moved from He Cuo in Baiqipu to live at the Qingjing Mosque and returned to the faith, citing the need to strengthen the main family line. After Guo Honglong returned to the faith, his descendants lived at the Qingjing Mosque. His descendant, Guo Shifu, helped renovate the mosque in 1794 (the 59th year of the Qianlong reign) alongside Bai Yunhan, a deputy general of the Zhangzhou Left Battalion.



















A large section of the Lingshan Sacred Tomb scenic area is dedicated to the Ding family cemetery from Chendai.

According to family records, the first-generation ancestor of the Chendai Ding family, Ding Jin (1251-1298), was originally from Suzhou and settled in Quanzhou for business. The Chendai Ding family maintained their faith for ten generations, spanning over two hundred years from the 13th to the 16th century. Ding Yanxia, the tenth-generation descendant born around 1517, wrote detailed accounts of the religious customs he experienced as a child in his work, 'On Ancestral Faith' (Zujiao Shuo). However, calculations suggest that by the eighth to ninth generation, the Chendai Ding family no longer prioritized scripture hall education. The remaining relics of the faith belonging to the Chendai Ding family are the several Ming Dynasty tomb stones located within the Lingshan Sacred Tomb.

Before the Ding family established their base in Chendai, the first, second, and third generations were all buried at Lingshan, east of Quanzhou city. After the fourth-generation ancestor, Ding Shan, established the family base in Chendai, he entrusted the management of the ancestral graves to others. Later, Xu Fu, the son of the second manager Xu Fen, repeatedly encroached on the ancestral graveyard, and the Ding family endured this in silence. Eighteen years later, in 1505, the eighth-generation descendant Ding Yi passed the imperial examinations to become a jinshi. Upon returning home, he filed a lawsuit and finally reclaimed the ancestral tomb land.

During the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty, the descendants of the Ding family combined the graves of the first, second, and third generations. In 1993, due to road construction, many of the Chendai Ding family's tomb stones were moved from outside the East Gate of Quanzhou and Luyuan to the Lingshan Sacred Tomb. The current combined tomb of the first, second, and third generations was also renovated during this period. The tomb stones and tombstones seen today are not the original ones.





After the Ming Dynasty, the Chendai Ding family claimed their ancestor was the Yuan Dynasty politician Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din, so the cemetery features inscriptions identifying them as descendants of a saint.







In the cemetery, you can also see the Basmala (tasimi) auspicious bird of the Chendai Ding family.









The tomb of the fourth-generation Chendai Ding family ancestor, Ding Shan, and his wife, Zhuang Xiniang.

Ding Shan (1343-1420), also known as Yanren and Ren'an, moved from Quanzhou to Chendai with his father at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, he settled in Chendai and established the Ding family clan. His wife, Zhuang Xiniang, also known as Runxiu, was the sixth-generation granddaughter of Zhuang Xia, who was named a founding baron and junior preceptor during the Southern Song Dynasty. The Zhuang family was very powerful at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, but they gradually declined after the Yuan Dynasty. Many relatives left Quanzhou, and only Zhuang Xiniang's father remained in the Zhuang family mansion in the south of the city. The Ding and Zhuang families were neighbors at the time, so they married. Shortly after the wedding, Ding Shan and his father moved to Chendai. The Ding family's move to Chendai was likely related to Zhuang Xiniang, because the Zhuang clan lived nearby in Qingyang, a powerful group known as the Qingyang Zhuang family.

Ding Shan and his wife Zhuang Xiniang were originally buried in Luyuan, east of Quanzhou city. Luyuan means 'Paradise,' which is what the Quran refers to as the 'Garden of Heaven'. The tombstone is a traditional Islamic greenstone (huilvyan) tomb. Two five-story, pedestal-style tombstones sit on a Sumeru-style altar platform. The fourth layer of the tombstone is carved with scripture (2:255).



















Tombs of the fifth-generation Ding Guanbao, sixth-generation Ding Kuan, and sixth-generation Ding Min.

Ding Guanbao (1369-1436), also known as Shifu and Chengzhai, was Ding Shan's second son and the founder of the second branch of the Chendai Ding family. He was originally buried at the foot of Shuiniulin, east of Quanzhou city.

Ding Kuan (1395-1446), also known as Tingyu and Longyin, was Ding Guanbao's second son. He was originally buried to the left of Ding Shan's tomb in Luyuan Mountain.

Ding Min (1407-1456), also known as Tingxue and Yizhai, was Ding Guanbao's fourth son. He was originally buried at the foot of Shuiniulin, east of Quanzhou city. Ding Min was the first local scholar among the Chendai Ding family to promote literary education.





Tomb of the fifth-generation Ding Mabao of the Chendai Ding family, with his wife Pu and his successor wife Wang.

Ding Mabao (1366-1431), also known as Shilong and Yi'an, was the eldest son of the fourth-generation founder Ding Shan. He was the founder of the first branch of the Chendai Ding family and was originally buried with his two wives at the Chenggui Baoxue site on Daping Mountain, east of Quanzhou city.





Tomb of the fifth-generation Ding Fubao and his wife Shi Dingniang.

Ding Fubao (1375-1432), also known as Shizhang and Yingjie, was Ding Shan's third son and the founder of the third branch of the Chendai Ding family. He is buried at Lingshan, east of Quanzhou city. The tomb features two pedestal-style stone graves on a traditional Islamic Sumeru-style altar platform, with swastikas and two lions playing with a ball carved into the waist of the platform.











Tombs of the sixth-generation Ding Xin and his wife Cai, and the seventh-generation Ding Lun and his wife Zhuang.



















Tomb of the twenty-second generation Ding Jinke.

Ding Jinke (1923-1997), whose Islamic name was Yunus, studied at the Guangxi Chengda Normal School and the Hong Kong Dade College. In the early 1920s, the famous Hui Muslim Tang Kesan served as the director of the Xiamen Customs. He recommended his fellow townsman Zhang Guangyu to lead Islamic affairs in the Quanzhou area. After Imam Zhang Guangyu arrived in Quanzhou, he worked diligently on religious affairs, and the Islamic faith began to revive in Chendai. In 1939, the Chenjiang Branch of the China Islamic National Salvation Association was established in Chendai. Some members of the Ding family in Chendai went to the Qingjing Mosque in Quanzhou for their weekly Friday prayer (jumu'ah). Later, they converted the Wenchang Shrine in Sijing Village into a mosque and invited Imam Tie from Quanzhou to lead the religious affairs. Between 1937 and 1944, the Chengda Normal School moved south to Guilin. Its founders, Tang Kesan and Imam Ma Songting, accepted 17 young men from the Ding family in Chendai to study there, including Ding Jinke.

Ding Jinke joined the revolution during the War of Liberation. Later, he worked for the Financial and Economic Committee of the State Council and at various colleges and universities in Beijing and Xinjiang. He retired and returned to his hometown in 1983. In 1983, when the Fujian Islamic Association was founded, Ding Jinke, along with fellow Chengda Normal School graduates Ding Jinshun, Ding Jinhe, Ding Jinhong, and over twenty other dedicated community members, formed the Chendai Islamic Association Group to begin reviving religious activities. They borrowed the second-floor meeting room of the Chendai Hui Ethnic Affairs Committee and the back hall of the Ding Family Ancestral Hall to hold their Friday prayer (jumu'ah).

After years of hard work, Ding Jinke and other friends (dosti) raised funds to build the Chendai Mosque. The mosque was completed in 1991 and officially opened in 1993, with Ding Jinke serving as the first director of the mosque management committee. Soon after, the Jinjiang Islamic Association was established, and Ding Jinke served as its executive deputy director. After the 1990s, Ding Jinke helped dozens of young people from the Ding family in Chendai go to study religious knowledge both at home and abroad, with some attending Arabic language schools in Inner Mongolia.









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Reposted from the web

Summary: This food note compares lamb steamed dumplings, sticky rice steamed dumplings, and Cantonese-style shaomai through taste, texture, and regional food habits. It keeps the original dish names, photos, restaurant details, and eating notes for readers interested in halal Chinese food.

Historical records show that people in Beijing were eating minced meat steamed dumplings (shaomai) as early as the Yuan Dynasty. In the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, a textbook for Koreans learning Chinese called 'Pak Tongsa Eonhae' described the customs of the Yuan capital, Dadu, and included several notes on shaomai: 'Made from wheat flour dough rolled into thin sheets, filled with meat, and steamed, then eaten with soup. The local dialect calls them shaomai, with the character mai sometimes written as the character for sell... The skin is thin, filled with chopped meat, and the top is gathered tightly like a tied thread, hence the name shaomai... Made with a flour skin and meat filling, the top is shaped like a flower bud, which the local dialect calls shaomai'.

Currently, shaomai can be divided into three main categories: northern meat-filled shaomai, southern sticky rice shaomai, and Cantonese-style siu mai. Northern shaomai are common in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, North China, and the Northeast. Southern shaomai are found in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Hubei regions, while Cantonese-style siu mai are widely distributed across Southeast Asia due to migration.

I will share some of the shaomai I have eaten, including lamb, sticky rice, and Cantonese styles.

Lamb shaomai at Balizhuang Mosque in Beijing.

On the eleventh day of Ramadan in 2024, the elders at Balizhuang Mosque outside Chaoyangmen made shaomai together in the afternoon. The skins were thin, the meat filling was generous and fragrant, and dipping them in Laba vinegar really brought out the flavor. They also fried chicken strips and cooked rice porridge. I met three sisters from Yunnan who came specifically for this, and I felt very grateful to Allah.









Lianying Inner Mongolia Shaomai in Beijing.

There is a branch of the old Jining, Inner Mongolia brand Lianying Shaomai near Huguosi in Beijing. I ate their wild onion (shacong) and lamb, lamb leg, and vegetarian three-delicacy shaomai. The wild onion has a strong flavor, somewhere between green onion and chives. The lamb leg version uses large green onions, which suits most people's tastes, and the small chunks of lamb have a nice chew. The vegetarian three-delicacy filling is made of chives, eggs, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, and shrimp, giving it a rich texture.







Annei Laoma Inner Mongolia Shaomai in Beijing.

Inside Andingmen in Beijing, there is a shop called Annei Laoma Shaomai run by Hui Muslims from Hohhot. I had their beef and fennel shaomai and lamb offal soup. They serve authentic Hohhot-style food. The shaomai tasted fine, but they were very oily, leaving a greasy feeling in my mouth afterward. The lamb offal soup also tasted fine, but it was not made to order, and the texture suffered after sitting for a while.







Indonesian Siomay at the Beijing Indonesian Cultural Festival.

I attended the annual Indonesian Cultural Festival at the Indonesian Embassy. We started by eating Indonesian siomay. Indonesian siomay originated from Cantonese siu mai. It was first adapted by the Sundanese people of West Java, who replaced the pork filling with fish and added side dishes like cabbage, tofu, potatoes, boiled eggs, and stuffed bitter melon. It is served with peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce and is now a classic street snack across Indonesia.





Lamb shaomai in Shanhaiguan, Hebei.

Yingxinyuan Restaurant is located not far south of the mosque on Guancheng West Road. The elders at the mosque recommended it to me, saying they host guests from the mosque there. I arrived after 3:00 PM. The cook finished my meal and then took a break, as the afternoon shift didn't start until 4:30 PM. The owner said they usually don't have many customers after 2:00 PM, so I was quite lucky. Knowing that portions get bigger the further northeast you go, I ordered a steamer of beef and cabbage steamed dumplings (shaomai) and a plate of sweet and sour pork tenderloin (tangcu liji), but I still couldn't finish it all. The taste was excellent, though! The even larger Qinhuangdao mixed hot pot (hunguo) will have to wait until I can come back with a group of people.





Lamb steamed dumplings (shaomai) in Chengde, Hebei.

In the morning, I had almond tea (xingren cha), meatball soup (wanzi tang), steamed dumplings (shaomai), and steamed dumplings (zhengjiao) at the famous Tuojie Snacks in Chengde. There are many halal snacks in the Shaanxiying area of Chengde, including lamb soup (yangtang), buckwheat noodles (heluo mian), door-nail meat pies (mending roubing), steamed dumplings (shaomai), almond tea (xingren cha), stomach-wrapped meat (dubaorou), stomach-wrapped brains (dubaonao), lamb neck skewers (yangbo chuan), fermented bean drink (douzhi), and bowl jelly (wantuo).

Since the Qing Dynasty built the Mountain Resort in 1703, Hui Muslims have gradually settled in Chengde. Whenever Emperor Kangxi held the Mulan autumn hunt or came to the resort to escape the summer heat, Hui Muslim officers, soldiers, and merchants would follow him. In the early years of Emperor Yongzheng's reign, the Qing government stationed Green Standard Army troops in Chengde. Because most of the officers and soldiers came from Shaanxi, it was called Shaanxiying, and the 'Left Battalion' among them was mostly made up of Hui Muslims. From then on, Shaanxiying became a residential area for Hui Muslims in Chengde.

By the time of Emperor Qianlong, Chengde had become a major metropolis north of the Great Wall. Hui Muslims from Shandong and Hebei flocked there to do business, working in the food industry and cattle and sheep slaughtering, which was known as 'chasing the imperial camp' (gan huangying). Today, the ten major surnames of Chengde's Hui Muslims, such as Wang, Ma, Shi, and Chen, all moved from Shandong, while the Wu surname moved from Cangzhou, Hebei, and the Kong surname moved from Beijing.









Lamb steamed dumplings (shaomai) in Datong, Shanxi.

I took the high-speed train from Beijing to Datong in the morning. After getting off, I headed straight to the famous Fuxingzhai Shaomai on Jiaochang Street for lunch, where I ordered steamed dumplings (shaomai), Mongolian salty milk tea (menggu xian naicha), a basin of egg soup (penpen jidan tang), and oil-seared meat (guoyou rou). Their steamed dumplings (shaomai) were truly delicious and went great with the milk tea.







Lamb steamed dumplings (shaomei) in Taiyuan, Shanxi.

The street-front shops outside the old mosque in Taiyuan were built when Dananmen Street was widened. On both sides of the main gate are beef and mutton shops, and there is one on the south side that always has a long line. A little further south is the Huifengyuan restaurant, which sells steamed dumplings (shaomei), lamb soup (yangtang), meatball soup (wanzi tang), and various other snacks. I had lamb soup (yangrou tang) and steamed dumplings (shaomei) here, and both were exceptionally good.

Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Hui Muslims in Taiyuan have lived in the area around the South Gate of the old city. During the Qing Dynasty, Taiyuan had over a hundred local Hui Muslim households, plus a dozen or so Hui Muslim households who came from Suiyuan to do business, totaling five or six hundred people. After the Zhengtai Railway opened in 1907, the number of Hui Muslims coming to Taiyuan from Hebei increased significantly, reaching over 1,000 in the 1930s and over 5,100 in the early days of the People's Republic of China.











Lamb steamed dumplings (shaomai) in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.

I ate steamed dumplings (shaomai) and drank brick tea at Qingyuanchun on Nanshuncheng Street. I personally like this place; I ate here during my previous visit to Hohhot as well.

Qingyuanchun is a long-standing shaomai shop. In 1796 (the first year of the Jiaqing reign), Li Chun started selling shaomai from a wheelbarrow in Guihua City. He made them on the spot, and they were very popular. In 1828 (the eighth year of the Daoguang reign), Li Chun's son, Li Guangyuan, rented two wooden rooms outside the Lanma Wall in Guihua City and officially opened the Qingyuanchun shaomai shop. In 1956, brothers Li Hongtu and Li Mingqing renovated the thirty-square-meter shop and reopened it. The fifth generation, Li Jiting, took over in 1963, and the sixth generation, Li Yongqing, took over in 2009. It is a famous halal shaomai shop in Hohhot.









Lamb shaomai in Shenyang, Liaoning.

I took a high-speed train from Beijing Chaoyang Station to Shenyang in the evening. The next morning, I went to the Lijiang Morning Market in Shenyang and had lamb soup, shaomai, and pan-fried meat pies (huitou) at Heige Lamb Soup. The breakfast stalls at the morning market are all about being affordable! Shaomai cost 7 yuan per steamer, and meat pies cost 2 yuan each. It is hard to find prices like this in a restaurant. They make everything fresh to order. The lamb in the soup is fresh meat the owner cuts at home. He slices it thin, and it cooks quickly when swished in the hot soup, keeping it very tender.









Lamb shaomai in Jinzhou, Liaoning.

I took a train from Beijing Chaoyang Station to Jinzhou North Station in the morning, then had a steamer of shaomai and a bowl of lamb soup in Jinzhou. The price was very affordable.





Lamb shaomai in Luyang, Liaoning.

After getting off at Goubangzi Railway Station, I took a 10-minute taxi ride to Luyang Town in the west. Luyang Mosque is not far from the Luyang Bridge. We were warmly welcomed at Luyang Mosque. Director Jin of the mosque management committee treated us to a hearty meal at his restaurant, Donglaishun. Director Jin's ancestral home was Xiaoxinzhuang in Jinan, Shandong. His ancestors moved to Guozhiwa in Hejian, Hebei, and then to Yingkou, Liaoning, before finally settling in Luyang Town during the Republic of China era. Director Jin has been the director of Luyang Mosque for over a decade. He knows the local history and folklore of Luyang very well and told us several very interesting local legends.

Besides the large portions, the food was super delicious. The most notable dish was the shaomai; I can even say it was the best I have ever had! Their shaomai are a bit like the thin-skinned buns (baozi) from Xinjiang. The skin is so thin you can see the filling inside. The onion flavor stands out, the saltiness is just right, and they are not greasy but very fragrant.









Lamb shaomai in Harbin, Heilongjiang.

I ate shaomai at Lao Guo Jia Guan, a century-old halal shop on Desheng Street in the Daowai District of Harbin. We actually discovered this place by accident while passing by in a taxi the night before. As a son-in-law of the Guo family, I happened to be talking to my wife about how rarely we see halal restaurants opened by the Guo family, and then I turned my head and saw this place! I quickly noted it down on my phone and went to eat there the next day.

Guo Jia Guan was founded by Guo Shaoxian in 1927 on Zhengyang 11th Street in Daowai. The 1933 'Guide to Greater Harbin' already recorded that Guo Jia Guan served various dishes and catered banquets. Guo Jia Guan was also listed in documents like the 1934 Harbin Daowai Business Directory and the 1937 Harbin Special Municipality Daowai Business and Industry Directory.

Guo Shaoxian was originally from Zhangluji in Shen County, Liaocheng, Shandong. He came to Harbin in the early 1920s during the migration to the Northeast. It is said he started by carrying a basket to sell steamed buns (baozi) on the streets. After saving enough money, he opened Guo Jia Guan on Zhengyang 11th Street in Daowai. Before the public-private partnership, Guo Jia Guan was nearly 100 square meters with 12 large square tables. They served various stir-fried dishes, including braised meat strips (baoroutiao), stir-fried tripe (liuduling), stir-fried clear mirror (liumingjing), crispy fried meat strips (jiaoshaoroutiao), and sweet and sour pork (guobaorou). Head chef Ma Bingsheng was a veteran at Guo Jia Guan with excellent culinary skills. The pastry chef was Jin Guangli. He was skilled at making pan-fried dumplings (guolao), water-fried buns (shuijianbao), meat pies (xianbing), steamed dumplings (shaomai), and steamed dumplings (zhengjiao). The skin of his meat pies was so thin you could see the filling inside.

After the public-private partnership in 1956, Guo Jia Guan merged with several other Hui Muslim restaurants, including Huaxing Hao, to form the Daowai Hui Muslim Restaurant. Guo Shaoxian was assigned to work as a pastry chef at Xiangyang Restaurant (formerly Wu Ji Renyi Restaurant) on Jingyang Street until he retired. Among Guo's descendants, the only one to inherit his skills was his grand-nephew, Guo Dalin. Guo Dalin was born in 1937 in Zhangluji, Shen County, Liaocheng, Shandong. In 1953, at age 16, he moved to Harbin to join his great-uncle Guo Shaoxian and began his apprenticeship at Guo Jia Guan. After the 1956 public-private partnership, Guo Dalin worked at the Daowai Hui Muslim Restaurant. In 1983, he revived the old Guo Jia Guan name. In 2003, he reopened the old Guo Jia Guan on Desheng Street. It has been 20 years since then, and the restaurant is now managed by his granddaughter.

The old Guo Jia Guan does not have many online reviews and has barely advertised itself. It is a down-to-earth local neighborhood spot. They serve classic Harbin Hui Muslim dishes. We ordered stir-fried clear mirror (liumingjing), stir-fried tofu with hot peppers (jianjiaogandoufu), fresh mushroom with meat slices (xianmoroupian), and steamed dumplings (shaomai). Everything was affordable and delicious.









Wuhan, Hubei sticky rice steamed dumplings (shaomei).

Before the demolition of Qiyi Street in Wuchang, there was a lively morning market every day, crowded with people and full of life. On Xiangbi Street (now the eastern section of Bao'an Street), which intersects with Qiyi Street, there was a halal breakfast spot called 'Halal Da Jia Red Oil Beef Noodle Shop.' It was open daily from around 6 or 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. I ate red oil beef thin noodles and a fried dough cake stuffed with a steamed dumpling (youbingjieshaomei) there. The sticky rice inside the steamed dumpling was very fragrant and sweet. This shop is gone now that Qiyi Street has been demolished.









Not far southeast of Qiyi Street, at the intersection of Ping'an Road and Hengping Road, there was another local Wuchang halal breakfast shop called 'Niu Chong Chong Hui Muslim Snack Bar.' The owner's family had lived on Qiyi Street for generations. I ate hot dry noodles (reganmian) and sticky rice, beef, and mushroom steamed dumplings (shaomei) there. Their beef noodles and fried dough cake stuffed with steamed dumplings (youbingbaoshaomei) were also very authentic. This shop is also no longer there today.









Nanjing, Jiangsu egg steamed dumplings (shaomai) and egg yolk steamed dumplings (shaomai).

During the Daoguang era, Ma Sifa, a Hui Muslim from Mengzhou, Henan, fled famine and came to Nanjing with his family. He set up a stall at Yuhuatai to sell beef soup, which people called the 'Ma Huihui Food Stall.' Later, Ma Sifa's son, Ma Shengxiang, officially founded the 'Ma Xiangxing' brand in Huihui Camp, specializing in beef-stewed radishes and stir-fried beef snacks.

In 1912, Ma Shengxiang moved the restaurant across from the Great Bao'en Mosque, focusing on the 'Eight Beef Dishes' (niubayang). At that time, Ma Xiangxing had a Hui Muslim head chef known as 'Old Seven,' who was skilled at making stir-fried tripe (baodusisi) and stir-fried chicken liver. After Ma Shengxiang passed away in 1925, his second son, Ma Deming, took over the business. Ma Xiangxing shifted from cooked food and small stir-fries to banquet dishes, while adding various local-style chicken, duck, fish, shrimp, and egg dishes. After the capital moved to Nanjing in 1927, Ma Xiangxing became increasingly famous under the cooking of head chef Ma Dingsong. At that time, various Republic of China officials became regulars at Ma Xiangxing. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs often hosted foreign guests there, and diplomats from various countries frequently held banquets at the restaurant. During this period, Ma Deming created four famous dishes: beauty liver (meiren gan), squirrel fish (songshu yu), phoenix tail shrimp (fengwei xia), and egg steamed dumplings (dan shaomai).

People say the egg steamed dumplings were invented by Ma Xiangxing head chef Jin Hongyi to suit the taste of Bai Chongxi. Egg steamed dumplings are made with a filling of shrimp, chicken fat, and egg whites, wrapped in a thin egg skin. After steaming, they are topped with a sauce made from chicken broth, water chestnut starch, and duck fat. Today, the ingredients for egg steamed dumplings are shrimp paste, celery, and eggs.







The snack bar on the first floor also serves egg yolk steamed dumplings.



Singapore fresh shrimp and chicken Cantonese-style steamed dumplings (shaomai).

The Dim Sum Place is a very famous halal Cantonese-style tea restaurant in Singapore. It specializes in Cantonese dim sum and various Cantonese dishes, offering a wide variety. They opened on North Bridge Road in Kampong Glam in 2016 and have since opened two more branches. They are very popular with Muslims.

We ordered steamed chicken feet with sauce, fresh shrimp and chicken steamed dumplings, roasted chicken char siu rice rolls, fish fillet porridge, and Pu'er tea. Since we were there for afternoon tea rather than a full meal, there were still many things we wanted to try but didn't order.







Malaysia Seremban fresh shrimp Cantonese-style steamed dumplings.

After taking a taxi 50 kilometers southeast from Kuala Lumpur Airport, you arrive in Seremban, the capital of Negeri Sembilan state. We first had morning tea at a Chinese Muslim restaurant called Muhammad Kew Chinese Muslim Kitchen. We ordered chicken char siu buns, wontons, Cantonese-style egg rice, and shrimp steamed dumplings, all of which were delicious. Unfortunately, the Chinese owner was busy in the kitchen, so we didn't get to meet him, but we did meet his Malay wife, who was warm and friendly. The steamed dumplings are filled with shrimp and minced meat, giving them a unique flavor.









Malaysia Malacca Cantonese-style steamed dumplings.

Chan Mari Chan is a sub-brand of the large Malaysian Chinese Muslim restaurant chain Mohd Chan, focusing on affordable home-style snacks. The founder of Mohd Chan, Dato HJ Mohd Chan, was born in Gombak, Selangor. Influenced by his Malay friends, he converted to Islam in 2007 and began running his restaurant that same year. He has since been combining Nanyang Chinese cuisine with Malay flavors and has built it into the most famous and largest Chinese Muslim restaurant chain in Malaysia.

In January this year, we ate at a Mohd Chan restaurant in Seremban, Malaysia. You order from a menu there, and they serve a variety of Nanyang Chinese banquet dishes, which are relatively high-end. Chan Mari Chan focuses on fast food and snacks where you pick up your food directly from the counter. Chicken rice, small bowl dishes, and steamed items are the most popular. We picked up roasted chicken rice, three small bowl dishes, two types of steamed dumplings, and drank herbal jelly coffee and cocoa coffee. Eating at their place wiped away the fatigue of our journey, and we instantly felt embraced by Nanyang culture, which was very satisfying.

Their environment is also very nice, and many Malay friends (dosti) come to eat there with their families. Their shop even has a prayer room, which makes them a great example for us Hui Muslims.





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Reposted from the web

Summary: This second part of the Kairouan travel account continues around the Great Mosque and the old city after Jumu'ah. It keeps the original mosque details, street scenes, photographs, and Muslim travel observations for readers interested in Tunisia's Islamic heritage.













Street views of the old medina in Kairouan.

Kairouan was the capital of the Aghlabid and Zirid dynasties between the 9th and 11th centuries. The Aghlabid dynasty was an Arab emirate nominally under the Abbasid Caliphate. Kairouan grew quickly during this time and became known for its wealth and prosperity, rivaling cities like Basra and Kufa within the Abbasid realm. The Zirid dynasty was a Berber emirate nominally under the Fatimid Caliphate. Kairouan reached its peak in art, trade, and agriculture during this period, with education flourishing in particular. In the 1040s, the Zirid dynasty declared independence from the Fatimid Caliphate and recognized the Abbasid Caliphate. The Fatimid Caliphate then sent a group of Arab tribes to invade Kairouan. In 1057, these Arab tribes captured and destroyed Kairouan. The Zirid dynasty was forced to move its capital to Mahdia, and Kairouan never regained its former prosperity.



















In the Kairouan medina market, various sweets are very popular, especially the date-filled pastry known as Makroudh.









They also sell fresh dates here. They are quite sweet, though slightly more astringent than the dried ones.





The 18th-century Kairouan Bey residence, Dar El Bey, is now a carpet shop. The residence has 18 rooms inside with very ornate ceilings. However, if you do not plan to buy a carpet, the staff might not let you see all the rooms.















The office of the Kairouan Poetry Association; this kind of ornate ceiling is a signature feature of Kairouan.









The ancient Bir Barrouta well in Kairouan. Legend says it was dug by the Abbasid governor Ibn El Ayoun in 796, and the current domed structure was rebuilt by the Bey of Tunis, Mohamed, in 1690. It is still in operation today, using a camel to power a water wheel (noria) to draw water, which people collect in clay pots.











A gongbei built in 1829 in the old medina of Kairouan.









The Zeitouna Mosque outside the west gate of the old medina in Kairouan. Its architectural style is similar to the Great Mosque of Kairouan, but it is smaller in scale.









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Reposted from the web

Summary: This article records a visit to International Culture Day at the Pakistan Embassy School, with food, performances, students, and community life at the center. It keeps the original event details, photographs, names, and cultural observations for readers interested in Pakistan and Muslim community events in Beijing.

On November 2, 2024, I attended the annual International Cultural Day at the Pakistan Embassy College in China.





The Commercial Counselor of the Palestinian Embassy in China was there to introduce Palestinian culture, and everyone wrote messages of support for Palestine on postcards.



















The first booth inside was Azerbaijan. We started by eating the famous Ottoman dessert baklava (Paxlavası), which is a classic treat for major occasions like Nowruz. Different ethnic groups in Azerbaijan, such as Azerbaijanis, Lezgins, and Tats, all have their own style of making baklava. We ate a version made with walnuts, vanilla sugar, honey, and saffron, which was delicious.

They also had classic Azerbaijani dishes like rice pilaf (Plov), stuffed grape leaves (Dolma), stuffed chicken (Levengi), grilled vegetable salad (Mangal), herb-filled flatbread (Qutab), and vegetable yogurt soup (Dovga). Levengi is made by stuffing a chicken with walnuts, onions, and various spices before roasting it. Dovga is a classic drink served at Azerbaijani weddings, made by mixing yogurt with cilantro, dill, mint, spinach, and other vegetables.









The second booth was Yemen, where we drank Yemeni coffee and had some special desserts. Although coffee is now a popular drink everywhere, it actually originated in Yemeni Sufi lodges. According to current records, Yemeni Sufi lodges had already introduced coffee beans from Ethiopia to Yemen for cultivation by the 15th century. They were the first to roast the beans to make coffee, which helped them stay awake during night prayers (namaz). Mocha is an important Yemeni port on the Red Sea. From the 15th to the 17th century, it was the world's largest coffee trading center and even held a monopoly. Before the 20th century, Mocha referred to Yemeni coffee; it was only later that the term began to describe coffee mixed with chocolate.







Moving forward, we reached the Bangladesh booth, where we drank masala tea and ate a traditional Bangladeshi dessert called vermicelli pudding (Lachcha Shemai). This snack consists of thin noodles layered together and soaked in sweet milk, and it is a classic wedding dessert in Bangladesh.







Further inside were the Malaysia and Indonesia booths. At the Malaysia booth, we bought coconut rice (Nasi Lemak) and curry puffs (Karipap). At the Indonesia booth, we bought savory sticky rice rolls (Lemper) and shaved ice dessert (Cendol).

The coconut rice sold here was the most traditional and simple version, consisting of white rice with chili paste (sambal), dried anchovies, peanuts, and a boiled egg.

Karipap is a flaky curry puff that appeared in Malaysia during the 19th-century British colonial era, influenced by British pasties and Indian samosas, and later spread throughout Southeast Asia.

Lemper is a savory sticky rice roll filled with shredded chicken or fish floss, wrapped in a banana leaf.



















Next were the Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Xinjiang booths.

Uzbekistan had flaky baked buns (samsa) and freshly cooked rice pilaf (plov), which my mother-in-law thought tasted very good.

The Tajikistan booth was probably the most impressive this time, with a huge pot full of chicken stew!

The man at the Xinjiang booth is from Hotan, though he was born in Pakistan. The fried dough twists (sanzi) at the booth were delicious, and Suleiman couldn't stop eating them.



















Booths for three North African countries. I ate dates at the Libya booth, dried fruit at the Morocco booth, and the classic street food Koshary at the Egypt booth.

Koshary is a mix of pasta, macaroni, Egyptian rice, and lentils, topped with tomato sauce, garlic sauce, chickpeas, and fried onions. As early as ancient Egypt, people ate a dish called Koshir made from lentils, wheat, chickpeas, garlic, and onions cooked in clay pots. It only evolved into the modern Koshary after the introduction of pasta and tomatoes in the 19th century. This snack is vegan and very cheap, making it a typical Egyptian comfort food for the common people.



















Moving further in, we found Turkey and Turkmenistan, where we kept trying all kinds of snacks.







The innermost area was the Pakistan section, featuring various foods and clothing displays, including famous Beijing Pakistani restaurants Khan Baba and Zamzam. We bought freshly grilled chicken skewers and a large pot of chicken biryani at Zamzam. Suleiman also ate a few chicken skewers; it seems he adapts quite well to Pakistani food.













We performed namaz at the embassy school. Pakistanis also mostly follow the Hanafi school of thought, so their movements are basically the same as ours. There was even a basket of caps at the entrance, which matches our custom of wearing a cap for namaz, unlike Arabs or Iranians who do not have this practice.



















Children from all over the world showed off their traditional clothing.

I attended several foreign events in Beijing this year; you can often join different embassy activities in Beijing to experience cultures from around the world.

The Saudi Tourism Festival held by the Saudi Tourism Authority at the Temple of Heaven Park: Experience Arab culture at the Temple of Heaven Park.



The Rasa Malaysia festival held at Sanlitun Taikoo Li: Taste Malaysian food in Beijing—2024 Beijing Malaysia Festival.



The International Neighborhood Festival held at the Jianguomen Diplomatic Residence Compound: Taste food from Iran, Azerbaijan, and the Maldives at the International Neighborhood Festival.



Cultural exchange activities hosted by Saudi Arabia, the guest of honor at the Beijing International Book Fair in the China National Convention Center: Experience Saudi culture at the Beijing International Book Fair.



The Indonesian Cultural Festival held at the Indonesian Embassy: Attend the 2024 Indonesian Cultural Festival.

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