Looking West towards Mecca: Muslim Enclaves in Chinese Frontier Cities

Traditional Chinese urban form served as both a physical and a symbolic superstructure within which some divergent non-Chinese types of settlement and architectural character were accommodated. Muslim enclaves that were home to Muslims of different ethnic and regional origins were a feature of most Chinese frontier cities. These enclaves persist today, and recently many communities have rebuilt their mosques as explicit expressions of the importance of Islam in their identities. Focusing on four regional capitals — Lanzhou, Xining, Hohhot, and Urumqi — this paper discusses the development of divided settlement morphology and culturally distinct neighbourhood landscapes, and illustrates how Chinese urban design both enabled and constrained the expression of Muslim identity in the urban landscape.