Caoxiewan Mosque

📜 About & history

Caoxiewan Mosque, popularly the South Mosque, at 70 Caoxiewan Street outside Xiaonanmen, was the first mosque built by Muslims in urban Shanghai. It was founded in 1852 by eleven Muslim fur traders from Nanjing, including Wang Ziming and Ma Songshan, at first as a simple bamboo prayer room. It was rebuilt in timber with funds raised in 1907 and renovated in 1925 with materials from the rebuilt Xiaotaoyuan Mosque, giving it a prayer hall, lecture hall, ablution room and imam's quarters. Imam Zhang Shanqing from Shandong led it for over 50 years from 1908. A moon gate opens onto a flagstone courtyard; the arched rear hall has a mihrab, and a couplet in the hand of Weng Tonghe survives.

📍 Address