Chinanews, January 26, Beijing – With the landing of the last charted plane in Lanzhou at 10:20 am on January 25, 2007, all the Chinese Muslims who went for Hajj have returned from their successful pilgrimage.
More than 9,600 Chinese Muslims of 10 ethnic groups from Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Henan, went to Mecca for 40-day Hajj by air in 2006, and they started to return in batches on January 5, 2007.
Thanks to the good diplomatic relationship between China and Saudi Arabia, the pilgrims from China were warmly welcomed in Mecca, and five special offices were set up to help the Chinese.
The Chinese pilgrims also brought good opportunities to the businesspeople in Mecca, for they bought many souvenirs like tapestries, calligraphies and rosaries, which also reflects that the Chinese Muslims nowadays lead a fairly well-off life.