Niujie

Niujie (Chinese: 牛街; pinyin: Niú jiē; Wade–Giles: Niu-chieh; lit. 'Oxen Street') is a subdistrict in Xicheng District in southwest Beijing, China. The name "Niujie" can refer to the street Niujie or to the neighborhood Niujie. The subdistrict was previously in Xuanwu District before the district was merged into Xicheng District in 2010. As of 2020, its total population is 51,410.

The Niujie Subdistrict is administered by the Niujie Subdistrict Administrative Office. The core area of this district is along the street Niujie. The Niujie core area, a Hui people neighborhood, has Beijing's largest concentration of Muslim people. As of 2013 there is a Muslim-oriented hospital as well as social services, cafés, shops, restaurants, and schools catering to the Muslim population. In 2002 Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and C. Cindy Fan, authors of "Growth and Decline of Muslim Hui Enclaves in Beijing," wrote that Niujie "continues to thrive as a major residential area of the Hui people in Beijing and as a prominent supplier of Hui foods and services for the entire city." The neighborhood has the Niujie Mosque, which according to Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and Cindy Fan, "mark[s] the identity of Niujie" and has an element of centrality in the community. Most larger Hui neighborhoods in Beijing have their own mosques.

At up to the Tang dynasty, what is now Niujie would have been on the city's periphery according to archival research and historical documents. The Niujie Mosque was built between 916 and 1125. Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and Cindy Fan stated that the establishment of the Hui settlement "probably" was related to Muslims joining the army of Genghis Khan, who had conquered Beijing, and that based on some gravestones of imams encountered at the Niujie Mosque, a significant community of Hui people had lived in the Niujie area dating back to the Yuan dynasty. During that dynasty many Muslims moved to Beijing. Therefore, soldiers were the first Hui people in Niujie.

During the Yuan dynasty Niujie was located in proximity to and outside of the main Beijing city wall, and it had the name Willow River Village. Dru C. Gladney, author of Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic, wrote that according to stories from that dynasty, Han people rarely walked in the neighborhood alone. In addition, the stories state that during the dynasty, 2,953 households resided on Niujie. Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and Cindy Fan wrote that "peripheral location reflected separation between the Hui people living there and the Mongolian residents living within the city wall." In 1544 an outer city wall was established and Willow River Village was within this outer city wall. Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and Cindy Fan wrote that the community "was still considered peripheral to the city proper where most Han Chinese lived."

According to the China Internet Information Center, a legend stated that the street Niujie was originally named "Pomegranate Street" or Liujie (Chinese: 榴街; pinyin: liú jiē; Wade–Giles: Liu-chieh) because the Muslims in the community grew pomegranate trees. Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and Cindy Fan stated the Liu meant "willow" (C: 柳, P: Liǔ, W: Liu) and that the similarity between liu and niu "might have given rise to the name change." Gladney wrote that the name may have originated from a concentration of beef butchers during the Qing dynasty or from the homophonic similarity to the Liu River, where pomegranate and willow trees grew. The name change of the community to Niujie occurred during the Qing dynasty. The China Internet Information Center stated that the street name changed when members of the community began specializing in beef. At that time, imams had butchered both mutton and beef.

Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and Cindy Fan stated that the Niujie Hui community continued to be distinct from the Manchu community in Beijing during the Qing dynasty.

In the late 1990s the neighborhood underwent a renovation and the majority of the 3,000 families living there relocated on a temporary basis as the renovations occurred. The renovations of a 36-hectare (89-acre) area in the district began in 1997, 26,000 residents in about 7,500 households were affected by the renovations. The completion of the first phase occurred by the end of 2000. New apartment buildings had been constructed, and a government policy stated that displaced residents of Niujie only needed to pay a small price in order to move into the new buildings. At the end of phase one, 3,000 people moved into the new apartment buildings. The majority of residents who decided not to return were Han Chinese. Overall the non-Muslims had a tendency to remain out of the neighborhood. Almost all of the Muslim families returned after renovations ended. Overall 90% of the displaced families from the first phase of the renovation had returned.

In 2002, Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and Cindy Fan wrote that Niujie "continues to be a thriving enclave, with a high concentration of Hui residents and economic activities". The second stage of the renovation was scheduled to be completed that year.