BEIJING, July 10 (APP): A chartered aeroplane carrying the first batch of Chinese pilgrims has returned from Saudi Arabia to China, as Chinese pilgrims return after this year’s pilgrimage season, China Islamic Association announced.

The first batch of pilgrims are from the cities of Yinchuan and Shizuishan in Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, according to the association.

Yang Faming, president of the China Islamic Association, and Ma Zhongping, vice president of the association, were at the airport to see off the pilgrims, Global Times reported.

Yang congratulated everyone on successfully completing this year’s pilgrimage and wished them a safe return to China and reunion with their families.

He called on Chinese Muslims to further improve moral cultivation, standardize behaviour and conduct, achieve unity of knowledge and action, continue to improve the Hajj with good social morality, family virtues and personal morality, and protect the reputation of the Hajj.

It is important to adapt Islam to local conditions, adhere to the fine traditions of Islam in China, and strive to be a model of loving both the country and the religion, Yang noted.

Another two chartered flights also departed on the same day, with one of them heading to Yinchuan, and the other to Kunming, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, according to the association.

This year’s Hajj started on June 26 and ended on July 1.