Muslim area offers Spring Festival delights

Area upgraded

In 1997, roads in the Ox Street area were widened and local residents' living conditions were improved. More than 7,500 families, comprising 260,000 people, benefited from these measures.

According to Ox Street: A Muslim Community's Change in Beijing, a book by folklorist Liang Jingyu, who is also a professor at the School of Ethnology and Sociology at Minzu University of China, it was the largest upgrading project in Beijing in the 1990s.

An's family moved from a large courtyard, which was home to some 20 other families, to a 22-story building. Before the pandemic struck, An visited Ox Street to see her parents, former neighbors and childhood friends.

"I feel at home when I'm in this neighborhood. I have so many memories here and there are numerous choices of delicious food. When we celebrate Spring Festival, it's all about families," she said.

"When I was a child, Spring Festival was what I looked forward to most during the year. My parents bought me and my five siblings new clothes and shoes. They also made us food, such as dumplings, which we didn't have at any other time of the year.

"Unlike young people today, we had less entertainment, but we set off firecrackers in hutongs with friends during Spring Festival. Although life was simple and we were generally poor, we had so much fun."