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Aarne Heikkila / NBC News
Finishing touches have just been made on a 25 million yuan (approximately $4 million) mosque that's being used by Yiwu's estimated 35,000 Muslims, one third of whom can be found at the religious center during its busiest prayer periods.
NBC Producer Aarne Heikkila recently traveled to Yiwu, China, a city renowned for its 70,000 wholesale vendors selling everything from plastic figurines to rubber bands, jewelry to exercise books.
Recently trade between China and the Arab world, in particular, has been booming. The city is home to what is said to be one of the fastest growing Muslim communities in mainland China.
We've reported on the excessive amount of consumer goods available in Yiwu's 173 acre wholesale before. See Adrienne Mong's report: Need fridge magnets in bulk? No prob
Aarne Heikkila / NBC News
Many Chinese Muslims in Yiwu come from China's Xinjiang semi-autonomous region in the northwest of the country. The region, home to the Uighur ethnic minority, is known for its separatist movement. The residents who hail from Xinjiang have helped turned this city into a key center for Islam in eastern China.
See some of Aarne’s recent photos showing the Islamic influence on the city.
Aarne Heikkila / NBC News
Middle Eastern restaurants in Yiwu, like this one called "Sultan's," have sprung up along Yiwu's main boulevard. Most bring in cooks and staff from back home and service a Middle Eastern clientele.
Aarne Heikkila / NBC News
One of the many Chinese vendors in Yiwu sells lamps.
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If you're interested in the themes of Muslim communities and Sino-Mid Eastern trade it might also be worth having a look at Shishi（石狮), a small city in Quanzhou （泉州) prefecture of Fujian Province. There's an enormous textile production base here which draws the majority of its clients from North Africa and the Middle East. Curiously, Quanzhou was also a historically significant trading port with the outside world, hosting sizeable expat merchant communities which included Muslims and Christians, among others. There's still some remnants of the ancient architecture, and remnants of the religious beliefs.
I believe they don't likely have rabble rousing terrorist muslims in china-for long anyways
Now that is a real combo: since our leaders to bankrupty have built Communist nations while we go down & out!@