Hui community thrives in Hunan

Muslims keep their traditions and mingle with neighbors, report Yang Yang and Feng Zhiwei in Taojiang, Hunan province.

Several days of rain had dispelled the mugginess that's usually so typical of Hunan province in summer. Swallows glided swiftly across the low, leaden sky and small plots of land planted with rice nestled between the two-story tiled houses in Zhabu in Taojiang county.

Insects chirped tirelessly in the surrounding shrub-covered hills, and every so often, cars, trucks and motorbikes roared down the concrete road that winds through the village. Generally, though, everything is quiet until the late afternoon, when children walk briskly home after school in groups of two or three.