Can ensure that when the Prophet Muhammad ordered the Muslims to seek knowledge through to China (early 7th century) no one else the Chinese people who had been converted to Islam. If calculated by the straight-line distance between the Medina (the approximate time he said:) with the city of Xi'an (the ancient city in China) reached 6720 kilometers. Across Iraq, Iran, Pakistan (India), and the vast Chinese mainland.
Why China? Because China has indeed known as a nation that has a high civilization in the eyes of the Arabs.
China land border as it has protected a large wall (great wall) is built in stages from dynasty to dynasty from the 3rd century BC until the end of the 15th century AD. Behind the great wall that the Chinese civilization and culture develop. Various kinds of beliefs and a large number of influential thinkers in the world civilization was behind the wall.
The first relationship is between the Arab Muslims and the Chinese nation through the world of cross-continent trade (countries). This occurred after the first years of the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Not only for trade, among other religious missionaries such as Jews and Christians, the merchants did the message of Islam in the country. Therefore, some researchers argue that Chinese history is the first nation to embrace Islam outside the Arab nation. Islam has been regarded as the ancestral religion of the Chinese nation in addition to religions and other beliefs.
Morris Rossabi, a historian from the University of New York (Encarta 2003) gives a picture, the fall of the Han Dynasty in the early 3rd century is the cause of reduced trade "silk route".
However, the rise of the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century revived the commercial world. In fact, in the Tang period can be seen a large number of events in the flow of merchandise across Asia.
It occurs as a result of increased inter-cultural relations, as many in the Islamic influence on Chinese civilization dances and music, especially in the nations of Central Asia.