The streets around the Great Mosque form Hohhot's most concentrated Hui Muslim neighbourhood — a tight grid of halal butchers, sesame flatbread vendors, lamb offal restaurants, and small mosques tucked into residential alleys. The community has been here since the Qing dynasty, when Hui merchants and soldiers settled in the western part of the city. Their presence explains why Hohhot's street food scene is significantly more interesting than that of most Inner Mongolian cities.
The area is most alive in the early morning and evening. Breakfast here means fresh flatbread (nang or shaobing) from a wood-fired oven, bowls of lamb noodle soup (yangrou mian), and tea. In the evenings, the barbecue stalls set up along the main streets and the whole neighbourhood smells of cumin-rubbed lamb on charcoal. The Great Mosque at the centre of the neighbourhood is the architectural anchor; the surrounding streets are the practical reason to spend an hour or two here.