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In 1932 a group of Chinese students arrived in Egypt on a scholarship to study at Al-Azhar. They were put up in the Takiya of Ibrahim al-Gulshani (which was damaged later in the 20th century) https://www.wmf.org/project/takiyyat-ibrahim-al-gulshani. A journalist took the opportunity to interview them [thread].
![In 1932 a group of Chinese students arrived in Egypt on a scholarship to study at Al-Azhar. They were put up in the Takiya of Ibrahim al-Gulshani (which was damaged later in the 20th century) https://www.wmf.org/project/takiyyat-ibrahim-al-gulshani. A journalist took the opportunity to interview them [thread].](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Epwa1wgW4AQyBnx.jpg "In 1932 a group of Chinese students arrived in Egypt on a scholarship to study at Al-Azhar. They were put up in the Takiya of Ibrahim al-Gulshani (which was damaged later in the 20th century) https://www.wmf.org/project/takiyyat-ibrahim-al-gulshani. A journalist took the opportunity to interview them [thread].")
![In 1932 a group of Chinese students arrived in Egypt on a scholarship to study at Al-Azhar. They were put up in the Takiya of Ibrahim al-Gulshani (which was damaged later in the 20th century) https://www.wmf.org/project/takiyyat-ibrahim-al-gulshani. A journalist took the opportunity to interview them [thread].](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Epwa1wlXEAAxVbu.jpg "In 1932 a group of Chinese students arrived in Egypt on a scholarship to study at Al-Azhar. They were put up in the Takiya of Ibrahim al-Gulshani (which was damaged later in the 20th century) https://www.wmf.org/project/takiyyat-ibrahim-al-gulshani. A journalist took the opportunity to interview them [thread].")
They had, he said, mostly been keeping to themselves and their studies. They justified this by saying they didn't want to invite lots of people over if they didn't know their morals. So the journalist was lucky to get an interview...
Aside from the talk about the state of Islam in China (the students were not hugely optimistic about ordinary Muslims' knowledge of the religion but did say there were 50 million Muslims in China) the interview mostly focused on their journey from Yunnan to Cairo.
It was a tough journey and religious observance was hard. They first took the train through the mountains to the port of Hai Phong, where they got on a boat to Hong Kong. The head of the mission said this trip was the hardest three days of his life...
The sea was so rough they did not leave their bunks the whole journey, praying sitting down where they were. When they got on the French boat the Andre Leon from Hong Kong things were calmer but they had more problems. The only meat on the ship was pork and ...
They didn't trust that other things hadn't been cooked in pork fat or were not Halal in other ways. They ate nothing until they reached Saigon, where they got off the ship and found a Muslim butcher and shopkeeper. Then they went to Singapore where they disembarked for a while...
They went to visit the offices of the magazine "Real Islam", which was the most popular religious magazine in East Asia. Then they went on to Colombo and to Aden. At Djibouti they met their first Egyptians (10 people working in East Africa) and finally arrived at Port Said.
(from al-Dunya al-Musawwara 13th January 1932) Thanks again to @TranslatioBonn for digitising these magazines which are allowing me to retreat to interwar Egypt as the world collapses around us. https://www.translatio.uni-bonn.de/online-zeitschriften/arabische-online-zeitschriften
