Scattered throughout China is the Hui minority. These are people the government categorizes as both ethnically Chinese and Muslim. The government will no longer call an individual Han Chinese if a person converts to Islam, instead, they will be called Hui. This is not the case for any other religion.
We visited the Muslim Quarter in Xi’an, which is populated by the Hui. We spent our time milling about the markets as well as taking in the interesting blend of Chinese and Islamic traditions in the hard-to-find mosque in the center of the Muslim Quarter.
Chinese Muslims working in the Muslim Quarter
Hui Woman sitting inside the mosque
Hui Boy inside the mosque
Exterior of mosque in Xi'an
Arabic sign at the entrance to Chinese gardens of a Hui mosque
The Hui coexist peacefully with the Han Chinese, and have no known affiliations with the Uighurs, Muslims in northwest China leading a separatist movement.
What does Hui mean? Plus I wonder if any ones shoes get ripped off.
Hui is a Chinese person that practices Islam.
Hmm. It makes sense that there would be some people practicing many religions in an area as big as China, but it still wouldn’t occur to me.
I’m guessing that the Silk Road played a apart in Islam’s spread.
ilike2forkmyself: There’s a bit of the impact of the Silk Road in Wild China, too, and some about the muslim section of China, if you haven’t seen it (I just posted a comment on an earlier about the documentary).