Aug 14, 2002: (Day 12)

Arrived from Xian to the city of Lanzhou after about 12 hrs of train journey from Xian. Reached hotel around 9 am and after bath left to visit a Mosque. Most of the people were super tired and expressed their doubts to go for 4 hr drive to the city of Lanzhou. 

100K Muslims in Lanzhou. people work from 8 to 12 noon and resume from 3 to 6 pm. major train network hub, serves as an artery for all of the NW territories. Lanzhou means Orchid. 29 mosques in Lanzhou.

10 diff ethnicities believe in Islam, including Hui, Uiguur, Uzbek, Tajik, Tongxang, Sala, Tatar and Paoan. Beard of Hui people is long, thick and are known to be very handsome people - big eyes and big face.

West Cross Road Mosque: This is one of the largest Mosques in the city of Lanzhou. West Cross Road Mosque sits in middle of a major intersection of four major streets. This mosque is partly funded by the Government of China. This mosque has three floors and the fourth floor is under development. More than three thousand people attend Friday prayers in this mosque. A small school is in full operation within the premises and a newer school facility is under construction. 

We were first welcomed by a young brother Muhammad Amin who turned out to be one of the best Quran reciters in China. In fact Br. Amin asked us to pray for him for his participation in the World Quran Recitation Competition in Tehran, Iran. He kindly gave a recitation sample for us. After listening to his recitation, most of us had tears in our eyes as we realized our own shortcomings. Br. Amin also gave us a guided tour of the Mosque.

We also had the privilege of meeting Imam Yunus . He is Raees-al-Ulema of Lanzhou and also represents Muslims in the Chinese Congress.  Imam Yunus gave us an overview of the Muslims in Lanzhou and all of China, both.

Imam's message is to follow the straight path and help each other and cooperate for larger good. Imam Yunus is one of the oldest Imam in the Republic of China today. He is 82 years old and believes his last 20 yrs to be the best as the Chinese society became more tolerant and open toward Muslims.  

Mother River: known as mother because the Chinese people believe their civilization started here. This is a favorite destination for foreign visitors. The water is muddy hence it looks yellow. A water mill is operated here with some controlled rafting opportunities. 

Mosque Xi Jindoulu : We stopped at this mosque out of our schedule and plan and thoroughly enjoyed it. This is one of the twenty nine mosques in the city of Lanzhou. Mosque Xi Jindoulu has a fabulous architecture and caters to a very young Muslim community. Like all other communities visited by us, the young people were all fascinated to meet us, the Muslims from North America. It was very heartening to see young Muslims here in this community speaking classical Arabic. Couple of young brothers offered reciting Quran and Qaseedas for us. We prayed nafil salat in this mosque and took group pictures with the Imam and the community. 

One of the craziest but halal things we did in China was to climb up and call the Adhan from the 7 flights tall minaret thru a steep and barely 3 feet wide stair-case. It was very adventurous to also see few sisters also bravely climbing up all the way.

The community of Xi Jindoulu graciously granted a large group picture with Imam and many members of the community.

From this mosque, we went for dinner and incidentally discovered a super-inexpensive internet cafe offering one hour high speed web access for a mere 2Y ($0.25). This lucrative deal motivated some of us to take advantage of the internet cafe. Five of us decided to skip the bus ride back to the hotel and adventure a cab-ride back to our hotel.