For followers of Islam, Friday is the day when one should come to the mosque to receive a sermon and worship with other members of the community. For Muslim men this is a requirement, but women may come as they please. In Jinan, there are three mosques that are all located within the Muslim district, the Great Jinan Southern Mosque (清真南大寺), the Women’s Mosque (清真女寺), and the Northern Mosque (清真北寺). The southern mosque, also known as the men’s mosque, is located near one entrance into the Muslim district and at around 12 o’clock in the afternoon every Friday, this area begins to transform. I attended Friday prayer with an acquaintance from Egypt who had been studying in Jinan for a few years named Selma. She did not frequently attend Friday prayer because it was not required of her but was kind enough to take me along with her to allow me the experience. We travelled to the Muslim district with another young man who was also from Egypt, but could only remain together until it was time for prayer to start because of the gender specific mosques. We did manage to explore the historic southern mosque minimally before prayer began and were allowed a peek into a room where around one hundred men had already gathered for worship. Many of the men within the mosque wore white caps and a surprising amount of them appeared to be from other countries. All of the text within the mosque was written in both Chinese and Arabic. Selma and I continued down the road a little further until we reached the substantially smaller and less busy women’s mosque. We entered through the gate and walked up a few stairs to the mosque’s entrance. There we paused and removed our shoes, leaving them with the sizable collection of shoes already strewn around the doorway. At this point Selma suggested that I cover my hair with the scarf I had brought along for that purpose; I did so and we passed through the hanging plastic strips and into the mosque. We took a seat on a row of green carpet near the back so as not to draw attention to my lack of experience in a mosque. Ahead of us women sat on the floor in rows chatting with one another. They all wore colorful hair covers, some donning them as they entered, and appeared to be around forty years old or older. At the very back of the mosque there were two rows of wooden chairs where only the very elderly women sat. Ultimately around seventy or eighty women gathered in the mosque before the service began, and of these women there were only about four women that appeared to be under forty years of age, including myself and Selma. The ahong (meaning one who leads prayer in the mosque) stood on a podium to deliver a sermon about being mindful and appreciative while the women gathered remained seated on the floor. When the sermon ended and prayer was about to begin we were summoned to fill in the row ahead of us. We began the prayer standing and then got back down to the ground, touched our foreheads to the floor, sat back up, brought our foreheads to the ground again, sat back up again, stood and repeated the process. We did this a few times before we transitioned to a different kind of prayer. The woman nearest to me attempted to show me what formation to make with my arms, but Selma told me that this part would be more difficult and I should probably wait outside. I sat on a bench and awaited Selma’s return while listening the chanting coming from inside the mosque. One of the first women to exit to mosque approached me and asked where I was from, initially assuming I was from Xinjiang (as many people in the Muslim Quarter do). She asked about my attendance at the mosque and whether I was Muslim and I told her I was a student studying Hui culture and that I came to the service with a friend. She was very interested in my presence at the mosque, I assume because of my youth and status as foreigner but I did not have much time to chat with her as the service had just let out. Selma and I exited the mosque together and walked back in the direction of the bus stop and the men’s mosque. The area around the mosque had completely transformed in appearance from earlier in the afternoon. By that time the street was packed with motorbikes and cars as well as more foreign young men. In a few hours the Muslim district had transformed into the most international location in the city. Many of the men were wearing long robes and speaking Arabic with one another as they departed from the mosque in groups. A few of them were acquaintances of Selma’s and they conversed briefly as we made our way through the crowd and out of the Muslim District.