Huaisheng Mosque

Guangzhou


You can't miss the 36m-high minaret thrusting up over Guangta Lu like a lighthouse. Enter just east of it and you can stroll all the way through the complex to the main prayer hall with its tapering Chinese roof shading rows of west-facing prayer mats.

Some of the stonework enclosing the main hall's courtyard dates back to the Ming dynasty. Rewind another thousand years or so and it's said the original building was founded on this spot in 627 by Abu Waqas, an uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. The present structure dates to the Qing dynasty; the tower was rebuilt in 1934.