Aug 10, 2002: (Day 8)

Ming Tombs : A small hill overlooking the city of Hohhot, surrounded by farms and small enclaves of residential areas. Chinese people are made to pay their homage to the early Emperors and their wives. Other than the shopping at this site, none of us really enjoyed the few hours we spent there. 

Few people from our group (no names please) did some very serious shopping of traditional Mongolian swords. These swords are hand made and very fine decorative pieces for home. IslamiCity awarded Nahid Farooqi to be the best negotiator of prices in China at all times. She helped one participant to buy a set of swords in only Y1500. The store owner had quoted Y7000. We have requested Nahid to put together a page or two with her magical shopping techniques. Hopefully, the 2003 tour participants can benefit from her expertise.

Other group members also shopped to their heart. Traditional Mongolian clothing, dolls and handicrafts were the most popular items. Almost everyone had to buy extra bags to haul back the stuff purchased in China. 

West Mosque : We had requested just a day before to our guide Sr. Rubia to arrange a meeting with this Mosque. We were quite skeptical if and whether they would be able to accommodate our request at such a short notice. When we reached there, we were simply taken aback. 

The community welcomed us with a large sign in Chinese and Arabic and informed the entire community that Muslims from America will be visiting them today. The entire community was already waiting for us. We were shown to the social hall already set up for us. What we saw pleasantly shocked us. There was food, food and more food.  The Mosque kitchen poured out all the specialties for us. We were simply touched for their exceptional hospitality.

Imam Abdullah, the President of the Mosque and other Directors with their families came into the hall, formally welcomed and joined us for lunch. Neither of them were eating and instead they were literally walking around our tables and serving us with the specialties and making sure that everyone tries everything. In addition to the senior leaders of the community, there were kids all over the Mosque and around us. The entire community seemed to be in festive mood. Their warmth simply brought tears to each one of us. 

More than a thousand people attend Friday prayers at this Mosque. The Mosque offers Quran & Arabic language classes for all ages. This is the first Imam whom we found to be 'not' foreign educated but yet spoke eloquent Arabic, learnt in the Imam Training College in Ganzhou area. He is leading the community for past eleven years. His personal library included the classical Quranic tafaseer such as Ibn Katheer, Zilal-el-Quran and many other such classical Islamic literature in Arabic language.

Every single mosque we visited had more than few people speaking Arabic. This proved our assumptions wrong. We were looking for people who can speak English but invariably we will find a good many people speaking good Arabic. Alhamdulillah, our group had few Arabic speaking people which helped a great deal. The bond of common faith and Arabic language made things much easier and enjoyable.

The West Mosque complex has a kitchen, cafeteria, library, social hall, school and many other rooms. Imam Abdullah had invited his friend Imam Nooh, the famous Quranic Arabic Calligrapher to meet us. He was very kind to demonstrate his unique skills. Many of us had things written for us. The proceeds were donated for the expansion of West Mosque. 

Among many of their memorable acts, one of them was their spontaneous gift of Quranic calligraphy with the verses from Sura Rum and few words of wisdom and advise to the newly weds, Ammad & Nahid. 

Imam Musa Abdullah kindly granted us an interview as well. We had to literally force him into the room for this interview as he was super busy in serving all of us outside in the social hall. 

This is the only mosque in all of China that remained open during the Red Revolution between 1966-1976.  Evidently the entire Muslim community literally surrounded the Mosque and the alleys leading to the Mosque. The army did visit the area but did not dare do a thing and hence this Mosque has the distinction of remaining open for services all the time. 

Imam convened a concluding meeting with his community members and our group. He welcomed and thanked us again for visiting them. He gave us the message (a) that we all come from different backgrounds but are one Ummah (b) that we are responsible to disseminate the message of Islam to the world, and (c) that we must work together for the sake of Islam and for the betterment of the entire world and the humanity. He also asked us to convey his sincere invitation to all the Muslims in USA to visit them in future. He expressed his desire as well to visit USA to meet the Muslims. He wished us a safe and enjoyable journey and reminded us of our Akhirah and prayed for our Maghfirah and Jannah .

Along with community leaders, he walked us all the way to the bus and waited until our bus left. Very tearful moments of departure. Although we had originally planned to visit them for an hour or two but we thoroughly enjoyed them for more than five hours. This was our longest visit to any Mosque in China.

Visit to Tea Shop: The teacher of Imam Muhammad Esa, Br. Muhammad Salah owns a very nice tea shop. He was very kind to invite us to his shop for a cup of traditional chinese tea. All of us not only enjoyed complimentary tea but at the same time got some great discounts shopping chinese tea at his shop.

Snack Dinner: As we were scheduled to travel from Inner Mongolia this evening, we decided to skip full dinner and instead opt for a 'change' and try KFC ... After a quick bit at the KFC, we head to the train station. China is opening up economically for foreign companies and investment and hence large cities, such as Beijing, Hohhot, Xian and others now has Pizza Hut, KFC, TGIF, etc.