A picture album on mosques in China's capital and a book on Islam and mosques in Beijing have come off the press with an inaugural ceremony for the publication held Tuesday at the Beijing Institute of Islamic Theology.

The album contains 297 pictures with captions in Chinese and English, including a 700-year-old hand-written copy of the Koran kept at the Grand Mosque in downtown Beijing's Niujie Street, a Muslim community. It tells the history to the present of Islam in Beijing.

The book, titled Islam and Mosques in Beijing, is compiled by Prof. Tong Xun, head of the Institute of Nationalities and Religions with Beijing United University. Only a Chinese version is available so far.

Yu Zhengui, secretary general of the Islamic Association of China, said the books, the first of their kind, would help promote cultural exchanges.

Yu said Beijing had approximately 250,000 Muslims and 68 mosques.

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2004)