Xi'an City Wall and Muslim Quarter

Xi'an's fortifications trace back to the Sui and Tang capital Chang'an, but the wall standing today was built in the early Ming dynasty under the Hongwu Emperor in the 1370s, on top of earlier Tang palace walls. The Shaanxi provincial government gives its perimeter as 13.74 km, enclosing about 11.32 square kilometres, with four original main gates: Changle (east), Yongning (south), Anding (west) and Anyuan (north). Later openings, many added in modern times, bring the total number of gates to 18.

Islam reached north-west China through Arab and Persian merchants and travellers from the mid-7th century, when Chang'an was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road. A stone tablet at the Great Mosque on Huajue Lane records its founding in 742 under the Tang dynasty, though most surviving buildings date from the Ming and Qing periods. The mosque faces west towards Makkah and blends Islamic calligraphy with Chinese timber halls, stone arches and gardens. It remains the spiritual centre of the city's Hui Muslims.

The Hui are Chinese-speaking Muslims whose families have lived around the Great Mosque for generations. Daily life revolves around the mosque, family businesses and food: many restaurants have been run by the same families for decades, and during Ramadan the rhythm of the quarter shifts towards iftar. White caps and headscarves are common, and visitors are expected to respect the mosque as an active place of worship rather than just a monument.