Tianjin – Cangzhou (115 km)

Cangzhou is a typical provincial Chinese town. On the outskirts were the typical signs of heavy industry, in this case what looked like an oil refinery. The town itself was unnatractive, filled with poorly designed low-rise buildings of recent vintage, empty construction areas and occasional pockets of old traditional housing. Despite the traditional housing being old, these areas were still not very nice.

Immediately after checking in, I went for a walk to see two sights: the Confucian Temple and large Mosque. However, my map was rather poor and I got lost. While wandering through an area of traditional housing after spying what looked like a temple in the distance, a woman asked me if I needed any help. I told her I was looking for the mosque. This woman was wearing headscarf, and was clearly a Muslim. In fact, many of Cangzhou’s residents were Muslim as evidenced by all the halal eateries and the caps worn by the men and woman. The woman offered to take me to the mosque on her bike. This woman was absolutely thrilled to make my acquaintance. I asked if I could go in the mosque, and she offered to give me tour. Of course, I didn’t understand much, but that didn’t stop the woman from jabbering away. I got the impression that she was quite pious. When she was talking about Islam her face lit up, and she seemed very happy. It was clearly very important to her.

After our tour, she invited me to have dinner with her friends! Of course I accepted and I met some of her friends and relatives all who were very nice. We went to a dumpling place where we first had sheep bones, a regional specialty (something I don’t need to eat again), followed by excellent dumplings. At the end of the meal, she told me not to thank her, but to thank Allah. In fact, all of her friends told that they wanted to give me a good impression towards Muslims. Well, they succeeded. I had a very special time in Cangzhou, and it was thanks to their hospitality.