The Chinese government will organize a pilgrimage group to go to the Islamic Holy City of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Pilgrimage is one of five subjects for Islam. Yang Shenrui, chief of Islam section under the Bureau of Religious Affairs of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region said the numbers of the pilgrimage group heading to Mecca would be consisted of farmers of Hui nationality and imams from some mosques, including 300 Hui nationality female.

By 2003 more than 3,000 people in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region had been on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The pilgrims should pay their own expenses. It costs each person more than 30,000 yuan or more than 3,627 US dollars for each person.

"In the past more than 20 years, Chinese government sent pilgrimage groups to Mecca each year. In recent years more Muslims of Hui nationality have longed for pious pilgrimage there to seek religious perfection," added Yang.

Many people go to Mecca by ways of tourism, visiting relatives and doing business. But most pilgrims hold government-organized pilgrimage groups are safer and prouder. At the same time they can be provided with the advantages including chartered planes, Arabic interpreters and health workers.

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is one of the five autonomous regions for minorities, where lives 1.92 million Hui Muslims, accounting for more than one third of the total population in the region.

By People's Daily Online