|
Niu Jie (Ox Street), the city's Muslim quarter , is a long diversion into the ugly zone west of here. The street, a hutong leading off Guang'anmenwai Dajie, on the route of bus #6 from the north gate of Tiantan Park, is a cramped thoroughfare lined with offal stalls and vendors selling fried dough rings, rice cakes and shaobang (muffins). The white hats and the beards worn by the men are what most obviously set these Hui minority people apart from the Han Chinese - there are nearly two hundred thousand of them in the capital. The focus of the street is the mosque (daily 8am-5pm; Y10) at its southern end, an attractive building colourfully decorated in Chinese style with abstract decorations and text in Chinese and Arabic over the doors. You won't get to see the hand-written copy of the Koran written in the Yuan dynasty without special permission, or be allowed into the main prayer hall, but you can inspect the courtyard, where a copper bowl used for cooking for the devotees sits near two graves of Persian imams who came here to preach in the thirteenth century.
Your Tip for Muslim quarter
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Muslim quarter - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Muslim quarter - visit the main Muslim quarter forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Muslim quarter webguide section below! Thanks.
| 
