The Huangcheng Mosque is one of the
most famous mosques in Southwest China. It is called Huangcheng (palace wall)
for short, and located in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. It was named because
it is near to the palace of a dynasty in the local history.
It was established in the 16th
century. The first repair began in 1858. In 1917, the mosque was seriously
destroyed by war. Although it was rebuilt right after the war, its scale was
reduced for financial reasons. Originally it covered an area of more than 6,600
square meters, while it only took up about 5,000 square meters after the
reconstruction. However, it is still the largest mosque in Sichuan
Province.
The existing mosque consists of an entrance
wall, two gates, an ambulatory, a bathroom, a sutra library and a worship hall,
etc. The entrance wall is just opposite to the gate and there is a street
between them. A tablet with the name of the mosque on it is hung on the first
gate, and a tablet with four Chinese characters Kai Tian Gu Jiao (the
most ancient religion) on it is hung on the second gate, which was made during
the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). There are many block-printed Arabian and Chinese
Alcoran in the sutra library. The worship hall was recently rebuilt. It is
magnificent, simple and unsophisticated.
It is the headquarters of the Islamic
Association of Sichuan Province.