Dongguan Mosque （Chinese name: 东关清真大寺） in Xining is one of the largest mosques in northwest China with a history more than 600 years. Architecture of the mosque combines traditional Chinese style and the local features, with grand appearance and delicate, dazzlingly inside ornaments. The mosque has a prayer hall which can hold up to 3,000 people. Now this mosque serves as an educational center and institution of higher learning for Islamism, and also is the leading mosque in Qinghai.
With its name “Xining Dongguan Great Mosque” shining at the top of a western-style entrance, the great mosque features a magnificent islamic architecture that combines together towers, walls and a temple-like main service hall. The mosque covers an area of 13,602 square meters now, and the construction area is 4,654 square meters. These buildings have a large scale, and combine the traditional Chinese architectural art with the Islamic architectural form. With the name of the mosque written on it, the gate is 10 meters high and 15 meters wide.
In 1998, a three-story modern building was built between the gateway and the street to house the mosque administration. Visited by as many as ten thousand worshippers during each one of the Muslim holidays, the Great Mosque of Xining is still the most important mosque in Qinghai and serves as a center of religious education for the region. The mosque is not of particularly Muslim architecture, normally easily differentiated from its Buddhist counterparts, but is more in the typical Chinese folk style. Beyond the square itself, the grand Domed Hall, housing up to 10,000 Muslim worshippers at peak times, is the highest Islamic education center in the province.