I had spotted the mosque a week or so ago when I was waiting for the number 7 bus. It is on Shengzhou Lu near the Confucius Temple. Walking today, in the hope of finding some fire-crackers, I wandered past the mosque and decided to pop in to have a look. I have seen mosques before of course but not in Nanjing.
I covered my head with my woolly winter scarf and tip-toed through the arch and into the courtyard. There are lots of beautiful plants making it a little haven from the noise and exhaust fumes out on the street.
Turning left, I entered a large courtyard at the end of which I could see the mosque with piles of shoes outside. I hestitantly went forward and took some (not too close) pics of the men praying.
Not wanting to intrude any further I decided to wander around the garden and then out again onto the street. However, I was spotted by a young Chinese woman and an older woman who homed in on the foreigner in their mosque.
They were very friendly and the younger one spoke excellent English. She explained that she had become a Muslim because her boyfriend was a Pakistani.
She was a lovely girl and she offered to show me where the women were praying. We removed our shoes and crept up some steep stairs to a room where a handful of distinctively looking Han Chinese were cracking sunflower seeds in their teeth and chatting, heads uncovered.
However, in a small bright room covered with prayer mats there were 6 women praying quietly.
On leaving the compound the manager rushed into his office, rummaged in a drawer and pulled out an English language guide to the mosques of Nanjing.