The country's largest Hui Ethnic Cultural Garden completed its first phase of construction recently in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The strong flavor of Islamic culture in the garden attracted more than 20,000 tourists from home and abroad to visit the site in a month.

The first phase of construction took three years to finish. The whole garden covers an area of 20 hectares. The building area of the garden, covering 30,000 square meters, was grand and solemn with strong Islamic flavor.

As the largest Hui Ethnic Culture Garden in the country, the garden consists of the main gate, a Hui culture museum, a grand hall to display the Hui custom, a cultural garden, a snack street and a miniature of all the country's Islamic buildings.

The garden shows the arts and history of the Hui ethnic people as well as their custom.

The cultural museum was the main building in the garden, where statues and pictures tell about how the ethnic group was formed, its development and living custom. Important Hui people in history were also shown.

More than 2.06 million Hui ethnic people live in Ningxia, which accounted for one-fourth of the total Hui population in China.

(Chinanews.cn October 25, 2005)