Linxia City

Linxia (zh-stp|s=临夏|t=臨夏|p=Línxià), once known as Hezhou (河州), is a county-level city in the province of Gansu of the People's Republic of China. Population 285,000. It is located in the valley of the Daxia River (a right tributary of the Huanghe) southwest of Lanzhou. It is the seat of Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, which is the centre of the ethnic minority of the Dongxiang.

Linxia has a Muslim (Hui and Dongxiang) majority. It is the main center of the Qadariyah Sufi order. It has long been the center of the Muslim community of Gansu, [Jonathan N. Lipman, "Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China (Studies on Ethnic Groups in China)", University of Washington Press (February 1998), ISBN 0295976446.] and even today it is sometimes referred to as "the Mecca of China". [ [http://www.drugladney.com/articles/tombs.pdf Dru C. Gladney, "Muslim Tombs and Ethnic Folklore: Charters for Hui Identity"] "Journal of Asian Studies", August 1987, Vol. 46 (3): 495-532.] [ [http://www.drugladney.com/articles/salafiyya.pdf Dru C. Gladney, "The Salafiyya Movement in Northwest China: Islamic Fundamentalism among the Muslim Chinese?"] Originally published in "Muslim Diversity:Local Islam in Global Contexts". Leif Manger, Ed. Surrey: Curzon Press. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, No 26. Pp. 102-149.] [ [http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/weekinreview/20060219_YARDLEY_FEATURE/blocker.html Jim Yardley, "Little Mecca"] Photo essay originally published in the New York Times.] [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/weekinreview/19yardley.html Jim Yardley, "A Spectator's Role for China's Muslims"] Article originally published in the New York Times.]

Sources