The 17th century mosque that Turkey's Sultan Ahmet I built in Istanbul, known as the Blue Mosque because of the exquisitely patterned blue ceramic tiles lining the walls inside, is historically known to attract Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It was one of the shrines where Pope Benedict XVI prayed in 2006 while visiting Turkey.

Back home in Ningxia, a local Chinese businessman, Li Jiehuang, loved the mosque and the Muslim culture so much that he decided to build a mosque in Yinchuan, patterned on the Istanbul model.

Opened to the public in 2008, the beautiful mosque that can accommodate around 4,000 people is also a platform for acquainting locals as well as visitors with Islam, how it came to be, and its basic tenets.

A major tourist attraction, the mosque draws scores of non-Muslims. Outside the prayer hall, women sit with scarves and burquas, the long robe that many Muslim women wear over their clothes when going out. Women visitors to the mosque are shown how to drape a scarf around their head as the Quran, the holy book of the Muslims, asks women to cover their heads. 

Inside the prayer hall, people sit patiently on the carpeted floor while a young man describes the basics of Islam to them. Then the speaker rounds off his lecture with a melodious "Allahu Akbar," the Muslim call to prayer, meaning "Allah is the Greatest."

Tian Jinhua Ibrahim, a mosque official, says a Saudi Arabian prince and Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, are among the illustrious visitors who came to see the mosque.