The Hui People

The second most numerous ethnic minority in the Erhai area is the Hui. When Kubilai Khan conquered Dali he left behind a contingent of his army to police the new imperial acquisition. Many of these were Muslim soldiers from northwest China and these became the nucleus of a new Hui community in Dali. Over the centuries, as Dali's commercial importance grew, the Hui became the main caravan organisers, handling most trade of western Yunnan. Perhaps it was this grip on the economy that led the Dali Hui in the mid-19th century to reckon they could revolt and set up a state of their own.

The revolt failed and savage revenge decimated the Dali Hui. They were forbidden to live within the old city and hunted down and slain if they were believed to be in any way involved in the rebellion. Some of the Hui adopted the Bai language and lived like the Bai, with no evidence of Islam to be observed, and thus escaped detection. Once the heat was off they became more openly Islamic, but still retained the Bai language in daily intercourse, even at home. An example of this linguistic adaptation survives today in the Hui village of Chongxing. It lies on the slopes just a few kilometres southeast of Zhoucheng, recognisable from the road by the Arabian-style mosque that dominates its centre.

The Hui are no longer forbidden to live within Dali, of course, and Hui restaurants are common in the old town. On Bo Ai Street a new mosque stands, also in the Arabian style, with an attached Islamic Studies Institute. But on Fridays Dali Hui prefer to attend prayer services at the venerable Western Mosque, on a small lane about two blocks away. The modest building is in the Chinese style. On the wall of the courtyard entrance is a painting of Mecca, the top of the wall sporting a tiled roof with upturned ends, in the typical Dali style.

Just 5 km south of Dali is the Hui village of Wuliqiao. Domestic architecture is similar to the Bai's and while walking around one cannot see much that is different from a Bai or a Han village, save for a few women in head scarves that drape over the shoulders. The 60 year-old Wuliqiao Mosque, however, identifies the village as Hui. Built in the Chinese style, it has an attractive, two-tiered tower over the courtyard gate.

Many Hui live in villages that are partly, occasionally mostly, Han. One such village is Du Wenxiu's own birthplace-Xiadui, a few kilometres southeast of Dali. A long, straggling village with stone houses and cobbled streets, it is the site of Du Wenxiu's tomb, in the lower end of the village. When the Qing troops entered Dali Du took his own life. But the victors cut off his head and exposed it to the public. The decapitated body was taken to Xiadui and now is installed in a simple tomb, shaded by pines and cypresses, with an Arabic prayer on the reverse.

In Yangbi Yi Autonomous County the Yi inhabit the mountains, especially in the north and west, but in the county seat the old-fashioned, traditional part of town largely consists of Hui neighbourhoods. One of the finest Chinese-style mosques is the most prominent building in the old quarter along the river, near the Yunlong Bridge.

This suspension bridge of wooden planks is strictly for pedestrian use and even the town's three-wheeler taxis may not use it. A new Daoist temple sits on the hill across the river. The bridge connects to the ancient Bonan Road; which was the trade route for pony caravans in the days before highways and trucks. Today the main traffic crossing the bridge is that of local farmers on their way to and from Yangbi markets. With a small adjacent park on the town side, and paths through the woods on the other side leading to a mutli-tiered pagoda, the bridge and its vicinity is the most attractive spot in Yangbi.