Biting a halal sesame seed cake against the backdrop of a tapestry with the image of Mecca, 80-year-old Muslim Xie Shenglin had a pleasant chatting with a restaurant manager with Arabic.

 

Meals and accommodation here are all arranged in line with our custom, making us feel at home," said Xie, vice chairman of the Islamic Association of China who came from northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

 

Together with dozens of other Muslim members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Xie lives in the Beijing Friendship Hotel and will attend the upcoming Fifth Session of the Tenth CPPCC National Committee.

 

The manager, Gai Jingmin, is especially moved to take charge of the halal restaurant of the hotel because he is a Muslim himself.

 

"Communication with the guests in Arabic helps shorten our distance and make them feel more at home," said the man wearing a Muslim white hat.

 

Food at the restaurant was bought from halal food factories, and Muslim chefs good at halal cuisine like mutton chop and corn flour pancake were hired, according to Gai.

 

Rooms for the Muslim political advisors in the hotel are specially decorated as well. A long carpet is spread for their pray. On a wall writes a big character Xi, or west.

 

"When praying, we face the west, the direction of Mecca. This mark of direction brings convenience to our life here," said Ma Yuxiang, a Muslim member of the CPPCC National Committee.

 

It is the seventh year that the Beijing Friendship Hotel receives Muslim CPPCC members, who will in the coming days hold political consultation, exercise democratic supervision and participate in discussing state affairs.

 

China is home to more than 20 million Muslims, most of whom dwell in northwest China like Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Qinghai and Gansu provinces.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March, 2, 2007)