China, the country that have an abundance of charm of natural beauty, cultural and historical buildings, seems to never end to lure the tourists to visit the country. After enjoying to walk around the city, I decided to look for something different which undiscovered in the city of Guangzhou. My friend said that there are two interesting places which must to visit, one is the ancient Mosque of Huaisheng Mosque and another is the old Sacred Heart Cathedral. Since the time of midday's prayer for Muslim also had come, we decided to go to the ancient Mosque. Trying to get the right direction by asking people, but no one knew exactly the place. It is hard to ask people surrounding, because they really do not understand English at all. So, if you plan to visit China, I recommend you either to bring along your friend who is able to speak Chinese or book of basic Chinese conversation for travelling. At least, it will save you to survive in China. Back to the story, we finally found the direction to get there by looking up at the internet. The Mosque is easy to reach by Metro, just take the Metro Line 1 and stop at Ximenkou station, about 5 minutes walking you will find the Mosque which is located at Guangta Road (Guangta Lu).
Once I entered the restaurant, I felt totally different atmosphere inside. The visitors who came and eat there were totally not talking in Mandarin (Chinese language), they were talking in another language. I was trying to catch some words from their conversation to make sure what I was thinking was correct. Until one guy told to another as 'Bir chay' and it ended my curiosity. Well, I can confirm that they are Uyghur people.
The next day, I came back again to that restaurant because I've promised to come and visit again. The guy who I met the day before, Abdul Satar, directly welcomed me and he asked me what I wanted to eat. He gave me the menu list and let me to choose. The meals are uyghur's cuisines and there was one meal that I wanted to try. I just chose:
Me : I want one Palow Manti.
Satar : What tea??
Me : Not tea. (I was thinking, maybe I wrongly pronounced). Manty (man-te).
Satar : Aaah, Manty. and drink?
Me : Ayran, please!
Satar : Ayran??
He was wondering, when I ordered ayran for drink, because no foreigners liked to order ayran for drink. He said to me to wait for around 30 minutes, because the chef had to prepare for that special meal. I was waiting also for my friend to come and taking some pictures around the restaurant. Suddenly, Satar came again and took me to have a visit around. He showed first, the Mosque but I've visited the day before. He even asked me to buy some dried fruits and nuts that sell by an Uyghur in front of Mosque. There are many Uyghurs people sell many things, such as, the died fruits, sweets, meats, sugarcane's juice and others. It will even make a traffic jam especially on Friday after Juma prayer, where there will be more people, not only Uyghurs, who sell a long the streets.
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| An Uyghur man sells dried fruits and nuts in front of Mosque |
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| An Uyghur man sell some dried fruits and nuts |
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| A group of Uyghur's student walking around in Shangxia Jia Lu |
He told me that, there are many Uyghurs now go spread around China, because the situation in Xinjiang or Turkestan is unstable. The Uyghurs who live in Guangzhou now, mostly they work in restaurant, shop, or any business center. He is not sure that how many Uyghurs are living in Guangzhou, but there are almost hundreds Uyghurs living around Guangta Lu. They are so open with people even with people that they just know. My uyghur's acquaintance invited to visit the place where mostly Uyghur live there. The young uyghur's are mostly well-educated, some of them are good even to communicate in English, but some of them only knows English for basic. It is also interesting, mostly the Uyghurs are enjoying to communicate each others in Uyghur's language and even I saw in some house, they just watched Uyghur's channel not Chinese one.
After 15 minutes walking, we were back to the restaurant, but the meals were still not ready yet. Satar asked permission to leave me, because he had to work to serve the meals for the visitors. Almost more than 30 minutes meals still not ready, even until my friend came, it was not ready yet. He asked me what I ordered and how long I had been waiting for the meals, so he decided to choose other menus. Well, after waiting more than 30 minutes, my special menu came. It is Polo Manty a fried rice cooked with vegetable oil, carrots and mutton meat. It is totally similar to Turkmen palow, that always cooked by my Turkmen friends. But, Uyghur's palow is a little bit spicy compared to Turkmen's one. Also, the Uyghur's manty taste delicious. Mantys are cooked on steam in a special cookware, which consists of sieves inserted one into another. Ayran has completely completed the delicacy of my lunch on that day. Ayran is made from fresh camel milk, yogurt and water.
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The Uyghur's delicacy : Polo Manty
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| Uyghur's noodle and bread |
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| Ayran |
After full with the meals, Satar came and brought us small teapot for refreshment, it is free of charge. It is a tradition of Uyghur and any turkic tribes to always have tea before the meals. Before leaving the restaurant, I asked Satar about the Friday Prayer on the next day, but he did not get what I meant. But, when I said "Juma Namaz", he asked me to come the next day before 1 pm.
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| Uyghur's delicacy |
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| Uyghur's delicacy |
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| Uyghur's delicacy: Samsa |
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| Uyghur's Delicacy |
The next day, I came again to fulfill my promised to Satar. He was waiting for me and he told me that Juma Namaz would start at 1:30 pm. I still had one hour to wait and I decided to order meal, but for this time I tried another Uyghur's meal, noodles and bread. An hour later, Adzan (the call of prayer for muslim) called every muslim to come for prayer. So, Satar and I went to the mosque which is right in front of the restaurant. I was thinking, the Imam (the leader for prayer) might give a speech in English, since I saw many foreigners who came for prayers, especially Arabs and African. But, Satar told me that the Imam would give speech in Chinese. After prayer finished, exactly it was right what Satar told me the day after, there were a lot of Uyghur, Hui and even Han Chinese who sell many things in front of the Mosque. Suddenly, the people made traffic jam on that street and many cars had to wait to pass the streets.
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| A Hui's family sell a sugarcane's juice in front of Mosque |
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| An old Uyghur sells fresh lamb meat in front of Mosque |
It was my great experiences to explore something else beyond the Chinese culture and meeting with the Uyghur's people was something that I unexpected on my visit in Guangzhou. Uyghur's people are more friendly and hospitalize, especially when they know I am also Muslim. They treated me as brother though we have barrier on language for the communication. Even, before I went back to Malaysia, Satar asked me to come back again to Guangzhou and maybe next time he would like to show me Turkestan, his beloved hometown.
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