Dongguan Mosque 东关清真大寺

About Dongguan Mosque

Its courtyard and prayer hall are the useful architectural focus, set within a neighbourhood where worship and everyday commerce remain closely connected. Older photographs show green domes and minarets removed during later alterations, so they should not be used as a promise of the present skyline. Plan a respectful visit around the mosque’s current arrangements for non-worshippers.

The mosque was built in 1380, during the Hongwu era (洪武年间) of the Ming dynasty. It was renovated between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, was later damaged amid political conflict, and continued to undergo restoration through the rest of the twentieth century. The Ma family warlords Ma Qi (马麒) and Ma Bufang (马步芳) controlled the mosque while they served as chairmen of Qinghai province. In 2021, an administrative building added to the mosque in 2000, including its dome and minaret, was demolished; the mosque's management committee stated that this building was not part of the protected cultural relic.

The mosque covers a total area of 11,940 square metres, with a prayer hall of 1,102 square metres, and stands on the south side of Dongguan Street (东关大街) in the Qingzhen Lane area of Xining. In the Ming period it consisted of a single courtyard with a worship hall and two multi-storey minarets; the present mosque is built in Chinese Islamic architectural style with elements of Western architecture.

Dongguan Mosque was listed as a Qinghai provincial cultural heritage site (青海省文物保护单位) in the fourth batch on 27 May 1986, and was designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) in the seventh batch on 5 March 2013. It is described as the largest mosque in Qinghai.

What to look for

• The courtyard and prayer hall reveal the scale of communal worship.
• The surrounding Dongguan streets connect the mosque with local daily life.
• Successive alterations explain differences between older photographs and today’s frontage.

Location & getting there

Getting to Dongguan Mosque

Use Dongguan Street in Xining’s Chengdong District as the arrival anchor. Ask at the mosque entrance which areas visitors may enter, especially around prayer times.