When you think of China the thought of a Muslim population existing there doesn’t immediately spring to mind which why I was somewhat surprised to find a thriving Muslim Quarter in Xi’an. The area was founded around 742 AD when foreign merchants from Persia, Afghanistan, and many other Middle Eastern kingdoms set up shop there along the route of the Silk Road. After 1300-odd years of integration we reach the current tight-knit Chinese-Muslim community totalling around 50,000 of whom many will spend their entire lives within the same five square kilometres where life exists much the same as it has the last few hundred years. As with all the most memorable trips the best way to discover a place is to get lost in…