Muslims In China Start Ramadan Fasting On Sunday, April 3rd

JAKARTA - Muslims in China began fasting Ramadan 1443 Hijri on Sunday, April 3, 2022.

"We started fasting on April 3," an imam of the Nandouya Mosque told Antara in Beijing, Friday, April 1.

However, in the early months of Ramadan this year, mosques in Beijing did not offer tarawih prayers.

"Because it's still a pandemic situation," he said at the mosque, which was first built during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1644) in Beijing's Ring Road 2 area.

Mosques in China have implemented an open-close system since the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province was locked down (lockdown) on January 23, 2020.

Every time a new case is found, mosques and other places of worship in China are closed to avoid the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, after they were deemed to have died down, places of worship were reopened to the public.

The number of Muslims in China is estimated at 20 million and comes from various ethnic minority groups, such as Hui, Salar, and Uighur.