Where CHINA Meets AFRICA 🇸🇳🇩🇯🇨🇮🇸🇴🇨🇳 I S2, EP124

Where CHINA Meets AFRICA 🇸🇳🇩🇯🇨🇮🇸🇴🇨🇳 I S2, EP124

so we met our second friend I am from Djibouti A small country from east africa Near the red sea (I am) Yemeni How long have you been in China 15 years 15 years this is Xiaobei a district in Guangzhou also known as little Africa there are foreign faces everywhere they are here to do business to study and they’re from all across Africa they’re like the locals buying groceries in the morning riding e scooters to work it’s a place where you’ll find authentic flavors from everywhere Arab Turkish Ethiopian Senegalese Congoese Yemeni and in this episode we are visiting Guangzhou city the heart of Cantonese culture but also a major hub of the maritime silk road the only Chinese harbor city wtih over 2000 years of non-stop foreign trade and a city that has embraced foreign communities since the 8th century so good morning everyone welcome back today we are leaving for where are we going？ guangzhou guangzhou it’s also called canton in English and it’s one of China’s historical trading ports and today it’s a very important city as well and it’s also a very international city so we’re going to take the metro from shunde because in the Zhujiang river Delta region all the cities are kind of grew together it’s about fifty kilometers away and we need to transfer maybe three times so here we are we came to xiaobei which is a very international area in guangzhou and the taxi driver said it has a nickname it’s similar to the Chinatown in other countries the driver said abroad they have Chinatowns in Guangzhou we have Xiaobai street clearly this place is an exotic enclave when we got to the hotel to drop off our luggage we noticed the lobby was filled with foreigners and packages all addressed to overseas destinations may i ask where are you from？ Congo Congo after dropping off our luggage we went out behind the hotel there was a narrow alley an unassuming place yet feels quite international this feels like a Northwestern part of China but with some exotic elements so you can find a lot of Xinjiang restaurants and also Halal butcher shop and everything is marked in two different languages in Mandarin and also in English and look at this one so here is a beauty salon 美发 美甲 洗脸 everything is written in both languages hello walking around here i can hear languages of different kinds i heard French and also languages i guess are from some Africa countries and sometimes
i really have the feeling that i am not in China but in a foreign country we wonder where they come from so we started talking with random people on the street What is your name? My name is Alice Laka And you are from Côte d’Ivoire? Yes from Côte d’Ivoire Yes I am from Abidjan i was once in Côte d’Ivoire in abidjan yes. 2 weeks yes it’s very beautiful oh, thank you That’s so nice of you So, I am here for two weeks I am leaving next week so, how do you like it here? Yes I had a great time so far We have the choice, right? And you are doing business here, right? Yes of course is it easy to do business here in guangzhou Yes it’s easy But if you don’t know the right addresses Ok I mean, as long as you don’t have business cards For example you need a plan A and plan B You better need a guide right Voilà And I don’t really have a guide Okay Voilà, so I exchange with different people and ask them “where did you get this from?” “Can I have the address?” and then I get their WhatsApp And once I have it’s good I am looking for the address Now I am on my way to the bag market somebody gave me his business card ah so you get the name card With the card I will get a car And get there Voilà, that’s why cards are important And did you have the chance to visit China a bit? Yes of course With the business cards With the cards haha I am going here and there I could still visit a couple of markets like clothing market camera market Voilà, kids shoe market Voilà, jewelry market Like the one I am wearing right now It looks great And this is also from China? Yes it’s also from here oh It’s beautiful do you get a good price What did she ask? If the prices are good in China? The prices at the resellers are quite high In China, I understood now you need to order large quantities the more you order, the cheaper it is It if it’s like 10 or 11 pieces the prices really go up And how about Chinese food? wow It is I am adapting It’s really good actually They have soups, when you see it You might think “what is that?” But when you try And you never really know what you are eating That’s exactly it But I eat a lot of fish here Because then I am sure what it is It’s fish Otherwise meat Except if it’s mutton Then it’s different Otherwise I don’t really eat meat here And how about you guys? Yes, we are married actually Wohooo She is Chinese, and I am German Yes but that’s interesting, right? That’s a real mix Yeah that’s right She is so pretty She doesn’t look that Chinese welcome to China welcome to Canton Guangzhou What did she say? She said welcome to Chinab And welcome to Guangzhou Thank you and unfortunately i was not able to talk in French it’s Flo who has been talking all the time yep you’re going to do the translation afterwards business that’s what everyone comes here for every little shop is doing international trade they put their WhatsApp and Wechat number right on the storefront signs so anyone can spot them at a glance doing business here is incredibly convenient traders come here to source goods they go from one shop to another to compare prices find the best deal and purchase pack everything up and ship it right away back to their own countries Moka Halal Africa food Arbi food wow so i really like how pragmatic business is done in Guangzhou look they have big signages displaying the models and they all post their wechat number WhatsApp number everything on the signs you can get all the information you need rather easily it’s crazy that you can feel this business business flare in the air and if you walk here you’ll see a lot of parcels along the street and those are awaits to be sent to different countries and you can get logistic services almost in every street corner it’s so busy and so efficient in every restaurant here there’s plenty of business opportunities it’s often combined with advertisement from for example work visa or factory advertisement or consultancy i can really understand why people come here for business because it’s so easy and you can just walk from one store to another and then compare the price and once a deal is set you can go to the next shop which is the logistic shop get everything packaged then sent back home guangzhou is really the powerhouse of manufacturing and on the street there are shops that sells so many different things for example you can find clothes there are bags banners and there are shops that sells solar panels furniture tires literally everything everything so look at all those cooling boxes up to 48 hours insulation i do find many shops here have customized towards the foreign foreign traders for example that kitchen utensil has a very obvious middle eastern style the goods on the streets of Xiaobei are just a small part of what guangzhou has to offer from solar panels to fashion accessories clothing and electronic products the variety here is beyond imagination there is something at every price point because this is a major sourcing hub prices are very affordable even small quantities can be bought at wholesale rates which is why so many traders from Africa countries come here to purchase goods this is one of the quite frequently visited wholesale centers in Guangzhou so look in the corridor there are so many packages ready to be sent to the to the rest of the world Where are you from? Senegal Oh cool Wolof: How are you? Good and you? You can speak Wolof? I have spent 6 months in Senegal Ah cool, and you speak French too? Yes I can speak Ah that’s cool You are from Dakar? I am from Canada Edmonton Canada how long have you been in China since 2004 i’m here oh wow but i just come and go okay this one oh nice yeah and your friends are you my friend also from Senegal uh yeah i’m from Senegal what’s your name uh Rijal Ri Rijal Nice meeting you we come here to buy some stuff hello hello hahaha so you have been like going in between Senegal and China for a long time. yes how do you like guangzhou how do you like the food the people? i feel sometimes like they they they don’t like foreigners we are all human you know sometimes they get because the world is here you know China is another world people are coming so Chinese people also they have to open their mind you know because from all around the world they come in China so they have to get a little bit more open minded t to welcome the the guests you know yeah so sometimes like in Canada I see every time everywhere everywhere you go they welcome you you know they usually get more open minded Whereas if I stop a taxi They don’t want to take you Because we are black Something like that i really don’t appreciate that but other than that it’s a nice place yeah we like it since two thousand four i came here yeah to buy some stuff i really like it’s my second country i love China how much time per year do you spend in China usually twenty twenty to two months twenty three days to two months you know because sometimes when i come here i can spend some time loading some stuff and shipping and when they stuff go they stuff arrive there and then they sell it and send me back money and i buy a lot of things to go with that you know okay so you come here buy stuff ship it back Yeah and then sell your stuff in Senegal China is another word i like i love China like i said i love everything, just sometimes some of them it’s not everybody but some of them See, you are nice you talk to me you welcome me but some of them just wanna come to say ni hao and don’t wanna talk to you this is everywhere i see the world is coming But other than that it’s nice i love China Did you have a chance to travel around in China? i’ve been to Macau Shenzhen Hong Kong Foshan Shunde Baiyun dadao we are going right now to Baiyun i can understand i think sometimes it’s a bit difficult when comes to social integration in China as a foreigner okay Okay so we are leaving Thank you guys Dieuredef (Goodbye) Dieuredef (Goodbye) Thank you so much! Bye Bye bye bye after saying goodbye to our friend from Senegal we kept walking then we noticed a man sitting at the entrance of a shopping mall we went over to say hi this time we met a friend from Yemen he told us he has been living in China for 15 years he works as a chef at a restaurant in 2010 10? 10，2010，in 2010 i came here since 2010 Do you like Guangzhou? Very much I love all the eastern china All of it I used to live in Yiwu And in Fujian And guanghzou When I came the first time in Guangzhou I love it For real Where have you Stayed in china ? My first time here Stayed for 5 years in guangzhou 5 years
5 years yes
And then? Then I went to Yiwu yiwu And spent another 5 years there And then I came here 5 years Do you still go back home? To yemen every year? During Chinese new year I go back home during chinese new year 我在这里 Every one or two years I visit home once Once every one or two years Your chinese is great It’s so so I didn’t learn it in school So you kind of pick it up Yes, little by little I didn’t study for it I stay with my friends And pick it up slowly hahaha So it has been many years Do you have made some Chinese friends? Yes I do I’ve go so many Are they are in Guangzhou? Some in Guangzhou And some in Fujian We used to go to fujian Sometimes for 5 month en Fujian Fujian So now your friends Are From where you had stayed Like from yiwu Fujian And Guangzhou We go to other places For fun Such as Yunnan Yunnan For a week We travel there, not for work Not for work We travel there So you have friends there and you visit them Am I right? yes And then come back for work That’s cool I go with my colleagues Your colleagues yes I see Nice meeting you My pleasure too shukran. shukran sometime i have the feeling that Guangzhou is the most international city in China because i’ve never seen people from so many different countries in such a small place in such a a short amount of time right? yeah i agree in Shanghai there’s this French concession part that’s very international you would see quite some expats and foreigners but i find here the amount is just crazy like everywhere there’s like
i don’t know half of the people i would say are foreigners and they are from really they’re really really from very different countries from different corners of the world this baobao you know which flag which flag is that? Uganda i think we’ve got to see lots of different flags from different countries and many of them that i have no idea then we turned right and saw that restaurant the yemeni guy works for it looks quite authentic and we went in for lunch what i found quite interesting about this restaurant is that there is so many business opportunities so at one corner there is a poster it’s about applications to Chinese universities and then there are advertisement for different Chinese companies and also consultancy services for foreign investment first interesting thing the menu is opened from right to left 欢迎光临 也门特色餐厅 and the food it’s crazy i don’t know what to order it’s so i’m overwhelmed we really didn’t expect that we can find an authentic Yemeni restaurant in the middle of Guangzhou our last dish is here so we order four different dishes one is the Yemeni bread a flat bread that is very thin and then this hummus with something else i don’t know a soft bread and finally a and finally an eggplant dish let’s start with the bread the bread is just baked it’s so crumbly man outstanding, really it’s so good the soft bread is so thin the authentic Arabic black tea 干杯 oh it’s so good it’s so minty we paid 159 yuan for the yummy lunch after leaving the restaurant we noticed there were many foreign restaurants along the street the traders who come here for business don’t just take guangzhou’s goods back home they’ve also brought the flavors of their own countries here in this region there are so many world cuisines there is Yemeni restaurant there is Pakistani restaurant Turkish restaurant Beirut international cuisines Ethiopian restaurant etc. so at this moment i really realize that Guangzhou is the the capital of gourmet not in a sense that it’s the center of Cantonese food but also it has cuisines from all over the world hello right outside Xiaobei subway station there was a Ethiopian cafe we stepped in for a cup of coffee and started chatting with a young man at the entrance i am from Djibouti A small country in eastern Africa Near the red sea And then I came. here Around 2011 I studied Chinese in Wuhan And after a year I went to Northeast china to study From Wuhan to Northeast China Yes, northeast china In Shenyang university of architecture i went back to my country when I graduated And I worked in the harbor Because I can speak multiple languages I feel that if I come back to Guanghzou And do business Like this I can make money wait, how many languages can you speak? almost… French English Arabic Chinese and a local langauge in Djibouti because China is a is a land for opportunity also Chinese language is a language for commerce language for trade How is business in Guangzhou Is it easy to start a business yes It’s easy
I see Every city has (an industry) In foshan, it’s sofa And the stuff at home Furniture. yes Furniture in foshan Furniture And in Guangzhou there are clothes every city have their own specialty and some people some foreigners don’t know that China they can produce everything and any quality you want it depends on your pockets yeah yeah
you need something cheap yeah that there’s a factory who can produce if you need something expensive yeah
something quality they can produce for you if you need something like medium quality copy they can produce for you it depend on your pockets yes depends on the purchasing power exactly I hope your business will grow big one day thanks thanks a lot. thanks a lot! inside the cafe we met another young entrepreneur Mohamed from Somalia my name is Mohamed Mohamed and where are you from i’m from Somalia what brought you here in the first place i do international business that’s why guangzhou is making life simple in Africa you can’t get international access so in here we can get like we can send our goodies to any other country in the world i have the sourcing supplies here also i have a warehouse here so that i can send my goodies globally it’s easy for me do you have a social media account like yeah i have a TikTok i’ve TikTok two account one is half million followers another one is for 200k something like that so mostly they are my communities from Africa oh cool man wow Muhammad Muhammad Muhammad also showed us his social media platforms where he has built a following of over a million fans through his long hard work he now sells his products through these platforms altogether you have like over a million and also i have a Facebook um wow wow i don’t focus if i focus i usually cross above one million but mostly yeah i don’t do social media (content) so you have different channels which means you have great exposure yeah for from different people this is the charm of Xiaobei a place where everyone is making business and looking for opportunities those who come to Guangzhou all carry their own dreams and if we keep asking we’re sure there’ll be many more stories to hear here i saw staff conversing fluently in English at hotel front desks and in restaurants i saw foreigners interviewing Chinese job seekers in Mandarin for over a thousand years Guangzhou has been an international port traders from Arabia Persia and India have gathered here since the Tang dynasty forming foreign quarters even building their own mosques today these ancient mosques still welcome Muslims from around the world during prayer times and the Catholic church funded by French still open its doors on the weekends to believers from every corner of the globe this is guangzhou a city that embraces diversity a city where people come with dreams to hustle to thrive to make money and after all these centuries that spirit has never changed guangzhou is so busy i feel like everyone is doing some business and there are so many trolley and the the bikes here are designed in a way so that they can place goods in both the front and at the back that’s the Ethiopian cuisine and coffee quite interesting the menu is all in English i want this dish And a pot of black tea ok this is our last dish in Guangzhou and we’re in an Ethiopian restaurant and this is the famous injera dish so it’s characterized by these different small dishes with different meats and different ingredients and salads and the famous injera bread which looks like this the most authentic way of eating injera is to pour all the dishes onto the top and eat it with hands so we are going to enjoy our dinner soon and we hope you enjoy this episode of Guangzhou and thanks for watching and bye bye

In the heart of Guangzhou lies Xiaobei, a vibrant neighborhood unlike any other in China. Known as the city’s “Little Africa,” Xiaobei is a melting pot of cultures, flavors, languages, and stories. In this video, we take you on an immersive journey through its bustling streets, colorful markets, African restaurants, and the fascinating lives of the people who call it home.
We meet people from all walks of life — from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, and Somalia. While most have come to Guangzhou for business, their presence has transformed the city into a true cultural melting pot, especially rich in South Asian and African influences. It’s a place where global connections and everyday life blend in fascinating ways.
Join us on this tour to Guangzhou’s Little Africa 🎬

0:00 Intro
2:20 Xiaobei Street Flair
4:04 A Friend from Côte d’ivoire
7:53 Stores in Xiaobei
11:12 A Friend from Senegal
14:36 A Friend from Yemen
17:43 Yemeni Restaurant
20:52 A Friend from Djibouti
23:07 A Friend from Somalia
26:17 Ethiopian Dinner

#china #guangzhou #africa #african #africanfood #chinatravel #guangdong

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