by JENNIE MARSH
A photo op at Victoria Falls. PHOTO/AFP
“My husband is the best Chinese chef in Zambia,” says Liu Xiuyi, a former takeaway employee from Chongqing. “Whenever the president has Chinese guests in Lusaka, my husband is hired to cook for them.”
Twenty years ago, with no savings or formal education, the couple emigrated to Zambia when Liu’s husband was hired as a chef by a Chinese state-owned construction company contracted to build roads in dusty Lusaka.
Now in their 50s, the Lius have just built a 15 million kwacha (HK$18.3 million) three-star hotel and restaurant, called the Golden Chopsticks, in the former British colonial outpost of Livingstone. They also own property in the Zambian capital; employ about 100 staff, local and Chinese; and rub shoulders with presidents and diplomats.
The Lius are among the estimated 20,000 to 100,000 Chinese living in the copper-rich southern African nation – weak census practices mean precise figures are elusive – and were among the first wave of daring migrants who sought their fortune here.
Although mining and construction brought the Chinese to Zambia, their presence is now having a significant effect on another industry: tourism.
…
“In mainland China, the rate of profit on construction projects is about 2 per cent, so in Zambia, Chinese companies are happy to earn 10 per cent, whereas Western firms want 30 or 40 per cent,” says Barry Sautman, professor of social sciences at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who specialises in Sino-African relations.
With the completion of the town’s US$13 million airport terminal, China now greets visitors to Livingstone when they fly in, transports them on its roads and, in many cases, checks them in to its hotels. Everyone in Livingstone now knows how to say, ” Ni hao”.
South China Morning Post for more
via 3 Quarks Daily