Soundwalk in the Bafang Muslim quarter of Linxia

Recorded by Rachel Harris, 1.40pm, 29 March 2014.

The dense tangle of narrow alleys that is the Bafang, eight neighbourhoods each centred on a mosque, is the heart of the old Muslim town in Linxia. Here the noise of the city streets is muted by the high walls of the old-style courtyard houses. The noon call to prayer issues forth from the Bafang’s many mosques in a polyphonic, overlapping, wash of sound. It mingles with the whine of whistles attached to the legs of pigeons flying overhead, the beep and engine roar of a small van, the cry of a vegetable seller, and the creak and rattle of his bicycle and trailer.

(Place on map at: Xiao Nan Xiang, Linxia Shi, Linxia Huizuzizhizhou, Gansu Sheng, China, 731100)

Categories: Field work record, Sound map, Sound map contents

Tags: China, Gansu Sheng, Linxia Huizuzizhizhou, Linxia Shi, Soundwalk in Bafang, Soundwalk in the Bafang Muslim quarter of Linxia, Xiao Nan Xiang