Aug 11, 2002: (Day-9)

Our train journey took us just about ten hours from Inner Mongolia, the City of Hohhot to Beijing on the way to Xian. There is no direct train or flight from Hohhot to Xian and hence we had to first go to Beijing by train and then fly from there to Xian. We reached Beijing around 7:30 am early in the morning. Br. Yusuf Mah picked us up from the train station and we headed straight for breakfast in Xin Jiang Muslim Restaurant.

After breakfast, we drove to Airport to fly to the city of Xian. Beijing to Xian is a 90 min flight. We were quite surprised to receive a beautiful a A320 desktop replica as a gift from China South Airlines. Compared to the snacks served in any major US airline, even the snacks were very generous. 

Xian: Xian is the beginning of Silk Road and is known as the ancient capital of Xian. Xian means Peaceful. It has a population of 7M people. It is known to be the (geographical) center & Ancient Capital of China for 11 dynasties. The region of Xian has been inhabited from as far back as 6000 years. At that time the now rather barren plains were much greener and ideally suited for farming. The first emperor of the unified China, Qin Shihuang founded the capital of Xianyang, which is a little west of Xian. Following the Qin was the Han dynasty that moved the capital further east, to the plain where Xian is now situated. Xian is enclosed by a wall stretching 8 km north-south, and nearly 10 km east-west.

Modern Xian is only a small part of its former self. As a reminder of the old importance as a center of commerce with many trading partners as far west as Persia and the Arabian world, there are still many Muslims living in the Xian region. Xian is a fertile land and grows apples and many other fruits. It snows mildly in winter. Best time to travel Xian is in August though June/July period is also good but with the danger of rains. 

We had stayed at Xian International Hotel. A modern 4 star hotel with international food served in three of their restaurants. After refreshing ourselves we hit the road immediately for the evening to visit the Xian Wall and visit to a Muslim family.

Xian Wall: Built 600 years ago on the remains of the Tang's Forbidden City during the Ming dynasty, the City Wall of Xian has a total length of 14 km. It is about 12 meters high, and about the same width at the top. Tourists can visit the wall and climb up as well. Many old cities have such city walls. They were built primarily for the fear of invading Mongols. The new city of Xian exists outside the walls. 

Muslim family hosting orphans: Our tour guides had organized this special visit to a Muslim family who is hosting few orphans. The source of these children is surprisingly unknown. It is said that they are picked up from the streets. One may wonder if these children are born in families who already had one or two children and for the fear of Government repression, the parents quietly leave these 'extra' kids on the streets. 

Muslim families picks these innocent souls literally from the alleys and raise them up as good practicing Muslims. Interestingly the law approves of as many foster children but not your own. In this family we met Ismail, an 8/9 year old boy and Fatima, a 12/13 yr old girl. 

The highlight of this visit was that the young boy Ismail hugged one of the sisters in our group, Sr. Nada and made her cry by calling her Mom out of the blue. These lovely children read Quran for us and seem to have same aspirations, hopes and dreams as any other kid anywhere else in the world. Part of the proceeds from IslamiCity tours are meant to support such families who are engaged in indirect Dawa work in China.  

The disaster of the visit to Xian is I, Shakeel Syed, am yet to find my 2/3 hours of invaluable video footage of our fascinating visit to the great city of Xian. I seek forgiveness from Allah and from everyone for this mishap.

Masjid in Xian: There is a small neighborhood Masjid located very close to the family we visited. We literally walked to the Masjid next door and prayed 2 raka of nafil salat and met local people and then walked back to the bus for dinner. Almost the entire community literally stopped to meet us while we were standing outside their house before departing.

We moved on to have a sumptuous dinner in a Muslim restaurant in the downtown area and then stopped by a Mosque to pray Maghrib / Isha together. This particular street close to the Mosque is more like a Muslim vendor street. All sorts of halal food was cooked right on the side walks and served hot & fresh to the customers. As one walks to the Masjid, one is immersed in exotic fragrances of Chinese food. Almost all of the hoteliers would invite the passers by for food and in our case they were inviting us to eat for free as we were guests in their land.