Five things not to miss
Follow the long axis from east to west, one courtyard at a time, and you will understand why this feels more like a temple than a mosque.
1
Step through the entrance and the first courtyard greets you with a large, centuries-old wooden archway carved end to end with Chinese motifs. Without the Arabic script set into it, you would never guess this was a mosque. The courtyard is paved in stone, edged with trees and anchored by a screen wall (照壁) of the kind found in Chinese palaces. From the very first step, the building announces that it has chosen to speak Chinese throughout.
This is the moment that stops people in their tracks. In mosques worldwide, the minaret is usually a tall, slender tower used to call the faithful to prayer. Here in Xi'an, that role is played by a three-storey wooden pavilion in the shape of a Chinese pagoda called Shengxin Lou, standing at the centre of the second courtyard. Its tiered, upturned roofs look exactly like a pavilion in an imperial garden, yet it does the same job as any minaret — dressed entirely in Chinese clothes. It is the whole mosque summed up in a single building.
In the third courtyard stands the small Phoenix Pavilion (Fenghuang Ting), named because its three-part roof, seen head-on, resembles a phoenix spreading its wings to take flight — a beautifully detailed piece of Chinese carpentry. Around it sit several ancient stone steles, some inscribed with poems and imperial edicts in the hand of renowned calligraphers. A number of them carry both Chinese and Arabic script on the same stone: tangible evidence of two worlds meeting in one place.
At the far western end of the axis is the main Prayer Hall, a large timber building that can hold around 1,000 worshippers. Its western wall, facing Mecca, carries a mihrab decorated with intricate patterning and Arabic calligraphy. This is the spiritual heart of the complex, and it is reserved for Muslims. Non-Muslim visitors are welcome to admire it from outside but do not go in — and during prayer times in particular, keep your distance and stay especially quiet.
5
The mosque does not stand alone — it is the spiritual centre of the surrounding Muslim Quarter. Walk out of Huajue Lane and you are on Beiyuanmen street, lined with grilled-lamb skewers, roujiamo (the Chinese "burger"), biang biang noodles and Hui sweets. The smell and noise are the complete opposite of the calm inside the mosque. The trick is to visit the mosque first, in the quieter late morning, then come out and eat your way through the quarter.