Islam is the second most popular faith in the world with over a thousand million adherents. Those who follow Islam are called Muslims. Islam as a religious belief was founded in the early part of the 7 th century A.D. by Muhammad in Arabia .
Islam was officially introduced into China in the year 651 A.D. During that period of time, many Arabian merchants and travelers of Islamic faith came to the northwest of China by the way of Persia and Afghanistan , to establish diplomatic, trade, and military contacts with China . At the same time another group of Arabian merchants and travelers came to China through Bangladesh Bay and the Malacca Strait to Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou and other Chinese south cities, where many of them settled and married local women who gave birth to babies that became the first generation of Chinese Muslims. Some mosques were built in that period of time by these merchants.
According to report, there are altogether 200 million Muslims in China at the moment. The Muslims in China have much the same customs and traditions with their brothers and sisters in other places of the world. They worship five times a day: at dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, at dusk, and at night.
The Islamic festivals celebrated by Chinese Muslims are those of Lesser Bairam, Korban Bairam and Mohammed's Birthday and so on.
Chinese Muslims live mostly in the areas of the Xinjiang Urgrt Autonomous Region , Ningxia Hui Zutonomous Region and some other parts of China .
