The praying and slaughtering begin every morning at sunrise. "Allahu akbar" intones the imam over each cow before it is strung up by its hooves and quartered.
This scene, and other religious and ethnic practices, set China's Muslim minorities apart, and the differences frequently led to clashes with the Chinese government in the past.
But the country's leaders are now embracing the large Muslim population in the remote and relatively undeveloped city of Yinchuan in the western region of Ningxia, hoping that frozen packs of halal meat produced locally can help build economic bridges with the Middle East.