Aug 9, 2002: (Day 7)

We started early morning out of Grasslands and reached the city of Hohhot just about mid day to Hotel Phoenix. The General Manager of Hotel Phoenix, a Muslim Br. Kevin Sun, went out of his way to prepare the rooms for us so that we could get ready and reach Masjid on time for Friday prayers. IslamiCity strongly  recommends Muslims to stay at Hotel Phoenix as it is the finest hotel in the City of Hohhot and one of the finest in all of China. It offers high speed internet connection right from the room.

Great Qingzhen Mosque : This was our first Friday prayers in a mosque in China. The Khutba was read in Arabic only. The Imam stands on the minbur but by design his face cannot be seen by the audience. A 12 x 24 inch wooden plate is meant to hide Khateeb's face. We were told that the audience must not be distracted by the facial gestures and expressions of the Khateeb and must be attentive to the message as it is an integral part of the Friday prayers. In other words the audience must listen to the Message and not be distracted by the Messenger. This seemed to be an interesting concept.

At the end of the prayers, the Salam-Alaykum is proclaimed in a loud chorus. The Musallees pray sunnah and nawafil immediately after obligatory prayers. In this mosque, more than two thousand people attend Friday prayers and more than five hundred people participate in daily prayers. We were very pleasantly surprised to know that about two hundred people attend daily Fajr prayers. 

The Muslim community is comprised of over thirty thousand Muslims in the area. The Quran school has a roster of 300 students studying Quran reading, recitation and spoken Arabic. Many people in this community spoke Arabic with us. 

Hohhot is one of the major centers of Islamic Movement in China. Masjid complex architecture is uniquely Mongolian. The Mosque is self sustaining from the community support and revenue from the rental properties. The Imam has living quarters within the Mosque complex. This mosque also has a very large dining-cum-social hall, a huge open courtyard, school rooms, etc.

Interview with Imam Esa & Ustadh Saleh : We were privileged to meet and interview Imam Muhammad Esa & Ustadh Muhammad Saleh in their offices. When asked if they (the Muslims) continue to be concerned of the Chinese Government they replied it is otherwise. This shows the proud mindset of Muslims in China, MashaAllah. Later in the evening Imam Esa were kind enough to accept our invitation for dinner and he joined us later in the night. 

Shopping in Muslim District: We did some unplanned shopping from street hawkers mostly for the fun of it. We also walked thru' a 15 feet wide and half a mile long open air market. In this market, there were vegetables, fruits, meat, animal parts, medicine, clothing and you name it they had gotten it there!

Dinner with Community Leaders: Imam Esa of Qingzhen Mosque, his family & with his teacher Muhammad Salah graciously accepted our invitation for dinner. We all gathered in a fine Muslim Halal Restaurant in the neighborhood where we continued our afternoon visit with them to learn more about the Muslims and Islam in China, in particular the Hohhot community. The discussions continued until late night as all of us were fascinated to learn of and from each other while exploring ways to find answers for the Ummah's common concerns and needs.