Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine October 2019 | Page 71

Travel / Xi’an
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1. Built in 1380, Xi’an’s Drum
Tower offers incredible views.
2. Husband and wife shoe
sellers on Muslim Street.
3. The Plank Trail, Mount Hua,
gets the adrenalin going.
4. Souvenirs of the Terracotta
Army.
 isplaying a blend of styles, the Great
D
Mosque has brightly coloured wooden
pagodas and grey stone arches, typical
of Chinese architecture...
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I am particularly keen to see this
Islamic house of worship. As I
walk through the imposing
wooden gate that marks the
entrance to this complex, I begin
to get a sense of the enormous
size of the mosque. It is the
largest ancient mosque in China.
Occupying a 12,000m 2 site, and
divided into five courtyards, the
Great Mosque dates back almost
1,300 years.
Displaying a blend of styles, the
mosque has brightly coloured
wooden pagodas and grey stone
arches, typical of Chinese
architecture, as well as the
arabesque patterns which
commonly decorate Islamic
buildings. While the mosque’s
huge prayer hall is not open to
visitors, I am free to wander its
courtyards. Just a few hundred
metres away I find the smaller
but similarly attractive Daxuexi
Mosque.
Next to its stone gate entrance,
which is etched with Islamic
calligraphy, stand two elderly Hui
Muslim men wearing white
prayer caps called Taqiyah. They
smile and wave me inside the
mosque. About half the size of
the Great Mosque, Daxuexi has a
similar layout – long and narrow
with a series of courtyards
separated by ornamental gates.
This configuration is standard for
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