Why is China so invested in Africa?

Leaving or arriving at the Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta Airport, you will come across an archway that is erect by the Chinese to symbolize the friendship between Kenya and China. The archway is not the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world. In fact, it is falling apart. In Africa, the general feeling about things made in China is poor quality. I wonder why?

After my trip to East Africa, I was really surprised by China’s presence here. Driving through very rural parts of northern Ethiopia, we saw large trucks with “XXXXX Construction Company” in Chinese painted on the side and not too far away, Chinese engineers working on the road. We would often see groups of Chinese workers (very obviously not on vacation) transit in and out of airports. I even came across a large paint store named Jiangsu (a Southern province near Shanghai) and very authentic Chongqing hotpot restaurant which had a sign that was all in Chinese expect for the words “Chinese Restaurant”. I chatted with a man who was working as a mobile communications salesman in Rwanda. He was waiting for his flight back to China in the Nairobi airport. He was surprised I was on holidays in Africa and asked “what is there to see here?”

China actually invests a lot in Africa. The China-Africa Development Fund has invested nearly US$540 million to support 27 projects in Africa, which will likely lead to investment of about US$3.6 billion in the continent by Chinese companies, China's Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

Why is China so invested in Africa? There are two major reasons. First, Africa has a lot of natural resources. From copper to diamonds, China not only wants them, but she wants first dibs on them. China is helping Africa build roads and other infrastructures to excavate faster and better transport these resources. A third of Chinese oil is now imported from Africa.

Reason number 2, Africa is a huge market for cheap Chinese goods. In recent years, Chinese goods have been flooding the African markets. Even African souvenir t-shirts came from China which made me wonder if the zebra-head chopsticks I bought were also made in China…
Here is a good blog for you can read more on China-Africa relations: China-African the Real Story

Goodbye East Africa

East Africa is treasured with bountiful natural resources, majestic wide life, colourful culture and history. Our 3.5 weeks here has come to an end. I feel like I have seem, heard and felt so much, yet there are so much more left to be seem, heard and felt. I can't say it has been one of the easiest trip for me and must admit at times, the experience was rougher than I have originally anticipated. But this is one of reasons why we travel, to challenge and test our expectations. I can't wait to explore rest of Africa in the near future.

Sunset Massacre - A Safari Adventure!

We decided to save the best for last! East Africa is forever linked with its wild life such as lions, zebras, wildebeests, cheetahs, leopards and rhinos. After some much needed R&R in Zanzibar, we were recharged and headed out for our 4 day in the Masai Mara Game Reserve on the northern border of Kenya.

We spotted a herd of elephants less than 10 minutes after we entered the reserve.

There were countless zebras, gazelles, topis and wildebeests roaming the vast Mara grassland. We even came by the curtest baby giraffe who normally is hidden out of our sight by its mother. By the Mara River, we didn't see the great migration. However, we did see the after math. One poor wildebeest didn't make it over river and became a feast for the crocodiles and vultures.

Down the stream, we also spotted hippos napping in the sun.

Morning of our last day in Masai Mara, we visited a Masai village. The Masai are semi-nomadic people who don very colourful clothing and jewelries. Their unique lifestyle has caught the curious eyes of the world. Despite education, civilization and western cultural influences, the Masai people very much have clung to their traditional way of life, making them a symbol of Kenyan culture. Our guide Samson said the lions will not come near a Masai since tradintionally, a Masai boy becomes a man after he kills a lion. These days no more lion can be killed on the reserve, but I guess the fear still lingered.

Before coming to the Mara, we were warn that leopard was very rarely spotted during the day. Leopard catches its prey by jumping out of the trees that they sleep all day in and drags the prey as big as a Thompson gazelle into the tree. With a great digestive system, Leopard can even process meat that has rotten; so this means they will always have plenty to eat. We couldn't believe our luck when we came across this majestic spotted predator hanging out in a tree in the late afternoon hour of our last game drive.

Shortly after we left the leopard, we came across an interesting scene that looked like it was right out one of those animal kingdom documentaries. It was a pride of lions (including 4 or 5 cubs) stalking a buffalo. Samson told us normally lions would not dare to challenge a buffalo, however, it looked very old and was alone. The lions would most likely make a move after dark since the playing field would be more leveled. We watched this intense stare down for about 1 hour and had to head back since the reserve did not allow night game drive. Now we will never know what happened...

Although we didn't spot any rhinos or witness a kill, we did score very well by seeing a leopard and baby giraffe.

Beach, Sun and Much Needed R&R

After a short, but delayed (again) morning flight from Addis, we only had one night back in Nairobi to re-pack and be ready to be "shipped" out to Zanzibar, Tanzania. I must say when we landed in Nairobi again, it felt very different than the first time we landed here. Compared to Ethiopia, this capital now seemed so modern and metropolitan.

Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the early 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964. Zanibar is an archipelago made up of Zanzibar, Pemba Islands, and several islets and 6° south of the equator. We landed in Zanzibar mid afternoon and took an one hour taxi ride to the resort. As we drove through the street, I was trying to take in the sights and sounds as much as can. The lines of palm trees reminded me of any beach town. Children sat in front of their mud brick houses and waved at cars going by.

The next day we hung out on the white sandy beach, swam in the crisp blue Indian ocean and worked on evening out our spotty farmer's tan. As much as I love trekking through mountain and learning new culture, but sometimes doing nothing is oh-so blissful. We also arranged a snorkling day trip to Mnewba Island area reef. Unfortunately, it was very windy and water was a bit rough, we had to cut our trip short. On the way back, we spotted several dolphins leaping around. I have never seem dolphins in the wild and this more than made up for having to deal with the rough sea.

Zanzibar's other must see is the magic of historic Stone Town. It is said to be the only functioning ancient town in East Africa. Needless to say, I didn't mind cutting my lazy days a little short to check out this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first place we wanted to check out was the Anglican Cathedral. The church's altar stood on the location of the whipping post from the former slave market. Next to the Cathedral was a hostel and orphanage and the cellars below had been slave chambers. The dark and creepy space that one can barely stand up in use to hold up to 75 people at one time. It was unimaginable to fathom once upon a time, human beings were kept and sold like animals.

Stone Town made up of winding alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and fancy brass-studded wooden doors. We spend the rest of the day just wandering (or getting lost) through the fascinating labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways.

As a big fan of street food, I had to check out the Forodhani Gardens night market. It was hard to decide between skewers of tuna, calamari or even baby shark (really?) or fried plantain, samosa and wash everything down with a glass of sugar cane juice. I finally decided on a Zanzibar pizza, a greasy pancake stuffed with carrots, pepper, onion, minced meat, topped with spices and other unknown ingredients. It was really good and filling.

Holy City of Lalibela, Ethiopia

We returned to Gondar after the Simien trek and caught a flight to our last stop in Ethiopia. Lalibela was named after a king who commissioned extraordinary underground granite Rock-Hewn churches with the intention of creating a new Jerusalem for those who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was a small town with a 30 meter wide round-about as its city centre. But its 11 Ethiopian Orthodox churches were complexly linked together via tunnels and gates, required a certified green jacket guide to manoeuvre through. We searched for such a person turn out to be a bit of a farce since everyone had green jacket if you asked.

The churches were carved downward into volcanic rock formation which meant the roof was at ground level. Insides were vibrant coloured paintings of various bible tales and icons. Majority of the churches are still in use today. In fact later in the night, a fellow traveller told us there will be some sort of ceremonial gathering tomorrow morning from 9AM to 11AM around the Bete Medhane Alem church area.

The next day we found out the gathering was to celebrate St. Mary's birthday. We arrived shortly after 9AM, there was already a large crowd dressed in their white robes. At first, priests chanted over the loud speakers at a high point next to the church as the worshippers listened on and prayed. We tried to get a little higher up view without disturbing the crowd, but ended up almost running into the priest precession coming down to bless the people below. The ceremony went on with more chanting, drumming and even dancing (actually just synchronized rocking back and forth) ! It was fascinating to people watch at a religious event like this one.

Lalibela may be rich in history and culture, but it is a very impoverished town. Our hotel was probably on route to one of the aid stations. We saw a constant flow of people and donkeys carrying large bags marked "wheat - USA Aid". Most people wore no shoes as they walked through the dusty road and children ran around the neighbourhood with torn clothes.