Daniel’s Blog

In China, It’s All About the Numbers

Why are the Chinese so attracted to numbers? Do they hold the key to ancient secrets or are they merely an odd fixation?

The Chinese believe that some numbers are lucky and some aren’t, as do their counterparts throughout the world.

The difference is that lucky numbers are a big industry in China where people can actually select their own phone numbers, license plates, and other random things, which is an expensive, as well as lucky, purchase.

In China, numbers are often integrated with sounds and have associative meanings. For example, the number eight is considered the luckiest number of all because it is pronounced “ba” which sounds like “fa,” the Chinese word for prosperity.

House numbers and telephone numbers containing the number eight are extremely sought after, and it is no coincidence that the Beijing Olympics began on 08/08/2008 at 8pm.

Conversely, the number four is considered bad luck because it is pronounced “si” which is similar to the Chinese word for death.

When ordering dishes in a Chinese restaurant, the courses are usually even-numbered, such as four, six, eight, etc. It is also customary if a guest visits a home bearing a gift of fruit the number will be even.

When buying apartments in China, those that are on even numbered floors are always the first to sell out. The fourth floor, on the other hand, is usually the cheapest, and usually foreigners, oblivious to the number’s connotations, occupy it.

The number six is considered very lucky, because the pronunciation sounds like the word for ‘flow’, suggesting that everything will go very smoothly.

The car license plate ‘AC6688’ recently sold for 80,000Y ($11,700 US dollars).

The number two is lucky as well, because it suggests harmonious existence and reproduction.

Some odd numbers are also considered favorable. Five is very significant because it relates to the five elements of Feng Shui (metal, wood, water, fire and earth), the five basic colors (red, green, yellow, black and white) and the five tastes (sweet, sour, salty bitter and pungent).

The number one is favored by young lovers and is exemplified in the Chinese idiom, “one heart and one soul.” A man will usually send one flower to his beloved to express undivided love or he may send nine (jiu), which is a homonym for the word denoting forever.

The number seven has experienced a bit of a renaissance as it was traditionally associated with anger. In recent years it has become more acceptable as it sounds a little bit like the words for ‘wife’ or ‘family’.

What’s in a number?

Who can say, but do YOU dare to find out?

(weirdasianews)

900 Nissan cars will be exported to Egypt in a few months from the Huadu production base of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (DFMC), a joint venture of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. And Dongfeng Motor Corp. of China, Nissan (China) Investment Co., Ltd. said in an interview on August 21.

The cars will include 400 Livina cars and 500 Sylphy cars, and their first batch is scheduled to be shipped toward the country in September, disclosed Sharon Shen, a spokeswoman for Nissan China. They will be sold there via Nissan dealers in Africa.

“Livina and Sylphy are just an attempt of Nissan,” Nissan China said. “The future export will be decided by their sales performance and local market changes.”

It will be the second time that DFMC is set to export cars. It was in August 2006 that it firstly exported 1,000 Tiida cars to Angola.

(tradingmarkets)

We Can Help China Embrace the Future

By TONY BLAIR

The Beijing Olympic Games were a powerful spectacle, stunning in sight and sound. But the moment that made the biggest impression on me came during an informal visit just before the Games to one of the new Chinese Internet companies, and in conversation with some of the younger Chinese entrepreneurs.

These people, men and women, were smart, sharp, forthright, unafraid to express their views about China and its future. Above all, there was a confidence, an optimism, a lack of the cynical, and a presence of the spirit of get up and go, that reminded me greatly of the U.S. at its best and any country on its way forward.

These people weren’t living in fear, but looking forward in hope. And for all the millions still in poverty in China, for all the sweep of issues — political, social and economic — still to be addressed, that was the spirit of China during this festival of sport, and that is the spirit that will define its future.

During my 10 years as British leader, I could see the accelerating pace of China’s continued emergence as a major power. I gave speeches about China, I understood it analytically. But I did not feel it emotionally and therefore did not fully understand it politically.

Since leaving office I have visited four times and will shortly return again. People ask what is the legacy of these Olympics for China? It is that they mark a new epoch — an opening up of China that can never be reversed. It also means that ignorance and fear of China will steadily decline as the reality of modern China becomes more apparent.

Power and influence is shifting to the East. In time will come India, too. Some see all this as a threat. I see it as an enormous opportunity. But we have to exercise a lot of imagination and eliminate any vestiges of historic arrogance.

The volunteer force that staged the Games was interested, friendly and helpful. The whole feel of the city was a world away from the China I remember on my first visit 20 years ago. And the people are proud, really and honestly proud, of their country and its progress.

No sensible Chinese person — including the country’s leadership — doubts there remain issues of human rights and political and religious freedom to be resolved. But neither do the sensible people — including the most Western-orientated Chinese — doubt the huge change, for the better, there has been. China is on a journey. It is moving forward quickly. But it knows perfectly well the journey is not complete. Observers should illuminate the distance to go, by all means, but recognize the distance traveled.

The Chinese leadership is understandably preoccupied with internal development. Beijing and Shanghai no more paint for you the complete picture of China than New York and Washington do of the U.S. Understanding the internal challenge is fundamental to understanding China, its politics and its psyche. We in Europe have roughly 5% of our population employed in agriculture. China has almost 60%. Over the coming years it will seek to move hundreds of millions of its people from a rural to an urban economy. Of course India will seek to do the same, and the scale of this transformation will create huge challenges and opportunities in the economy, the environment and politically.

For China, this economic and social transformation has to come with political stability. It is in all our interests that it does. The policy of One China is not a piece of indulgent nationalism. It is an existential issue if China is to hold together in a peaceful and stable manner as it modernizes. This is why Tibet is not simply a religious issue for China but a profoundly political one — Tibet being roughly a quarter of China’s land mass albeit with a small population.

So we should continue to engage in a dialogue over the issues that rightly concern people, but we should conduct it with at least some sensitivity to the way China sees them.

This means that the West needs a strong partnership with China, one that goes deep, not just economically but politically and culturally. The truth is that nothing in the 21st century will work well without China’s full engagement. The challenges we face today are global. China is now a major global player. So whether the issue is climate change, Africa, world trade or the myriad of security questions, we need China to be constructive; we need it to be using its power in partnership with us. None of this means we shouldn’t continue to raise the issues of human rights, religious freedoms and democratic reforms as European and American leaders have done in recent weeks.

It is possible to hyperbolize about the rise of China. For example, Europe’s economies are still major and combined outreach those of China and India combined. But, as the Olympics and its medal tables show, it is not going to stay that way. This is a historic moment of change. Fast forward 10 years and everyone will know it.

For centuries, the power has resided in the West, with various European powers including the British Empire and then, in the 20th century, the U.S. Now we will have to come to terms with a world in which the power is shared with the Far East. I wonder if we quite understand what that means, we whose culture (not just our politics and economies) has dominated for so long. It will be a rather strange, possibly unnerving experience. Personally, I think it will be incredibly enriching. New experiences; new ways of thinking liberate creative energy. But in any event, it will be a fact we have to come to terms with. For the next U.S. president, this will be or should be at the very top of the agenda, and as a result of the strength of the Sino-U.S. relationship under President Bush, there is a sound platform to build upon.

The Olympics is now the biggest sporting event in the world, and because of the popularity of sport it is therefore one of the events that makes a genuine impact on real people. These Games have given people a glimpse of modern China in a way that no amount of political speeches could do.

London 2012 gives Britain a tremendous chance to explore some of these changes and explain to the East what the modern West is about. One thing is for certain: Hosting the Olympics is now a fantastic opportunity for any nation. My thoughts after the Beijing Games are that we shouldn’t try to emulate the wonder of the opening ceremony. It was the spectacular to end all spectaculars and probably can never be bettered. We should instead do something different, drawing maybe on the ideals and spirit of the Olympic movement. We should do it our way, like they did it theirs. And we should learn from and respect each other. That is the way of the 21st century.

Mr. Blair, former prime minister of Great Britain, is teaching a course on faith and globalization at the Yale Schools of Management and Divinity.

(WSJ)

photo: Telegraph UK

Egypt’s North Sinai Governor Mohamed Shousha said here Monday that he welcomes investments from China, particularly in the domains of high technology, tourism, mining and water resources.

In an interview with Xinhua, Shousha said there is a great potential for Egypt and China to boost investment in various fields in the northeastern Egyptian governorate.

He said North Sinai governorate is working on realizing development in the fields of agriculture, industry, mining, tourism and human resources.

He expressed his hope that his governorate, even Egypt as a whole, can attract more investments from China to make use of China’s advanced high technology, which has witnessed great developments in the past years.

Chinese companies are also welcomed to invest in the Mediterranean coastal governorate for sea products, said Shousha.

(XINHUA)

ZAMBIA: Zambia’s first president argues that China’s push in Africa is well intended, writes Mary Fitzgerald

WHEN CHINESE president Hu Jintao visited Zambia last year he made sure to call on Kenneth Kaunda. The relationship between Zambia’s first president and Beijing goes back more than four decades. In 1967 Kaunda travelled to China to seek Mao Zedong’s help in building a railway that would link Zambia’s copper belt to Tanzania’s port of Dar es Salaam.

The Zambian president envisaged that such a railway, later to become known as the Tazara line, would enable the black-ruled states of central and southern Africa bypass the ports of apartheid South Africa.

Kaunda turned to China, he explains, after his request for assistance was rebuffed in Europe. “In Europe they dismissed it as a waste of money. But the Chinese said they would come. China has been very good to us,” Kaunda says, sitting in his Lusaka home.

The man who presided over Zambia from independence to 1991 wears a dark green version of what is still known throughout Africa as the Kaunda suit. Single-breasted with four large front pockets, it is reminiscent of the suit popularised by Mao Zedong in China.

The Tazara railway marked one of Beijing’s first major forays into Africa and it came to epitomise Chinese engagement with the continent during the cold war. Thousands of labourers and engineers arrived from China to build the 1,896km-long track.

Kaunda went on to become personal friends with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. “The story of the friendship between Kaunda and Mao is very famous in China,” one Chinese businessman in Lusaka told me.

Kaunda then liked to refer to China as Zambia’s “all-weather friend”, a term he continues to use today despite rising anti-Chinese sentiment among ordinary Zambians.

Not surprisingly then, Kaunda, now 84, defends China against criticism that its relationship with African countries sometimes falls short of the “win-win” scenario Beijing likes to portray.

“Propaganda from the West, no doubt about it,” he mutters when asked about critics who argue China’s current engagement with Africa has shades of neocolonialism. “It would be wrong to generalise when it comes to China’s relationship with Africa and portray it as somehow devilish and out to exploit the continent,” the former president argues.

“China can be a good friend of Africa and a good friend of Zambia if we know what we are doing.” He admits, however, to misgivings over Beijing’s role in Sudan due to the ongoing conflict in Darfur. “This is an area where even those who are best friends of China would have concerns. What the Sudanese government is doing there is wrong. China, just like any other country, has strong points and weak points,” he adds.

But Kaunda uses the example of China’s $9 billion (€6.1 billion) deal with war-ravaged Democratic Republic Congo to argue that it can be a force for good on the continent. “China has come there agreeing to build roads, airports, schools, colleges. In 10 years time Congo will be a different place.”

He says the Zambian government is to blame for the rise in anti-Chinese feeling, arguing more effort should be put into ensuring Chinese companies operating there comply with its labour laws. “You can’t blame China for these problems. It is the Zambian government’s responsibility,” he adds.

Overall, Kaunda believes China’s push into Africa is well intended. “If they helped us [in the 1970s] at a time when no one else would, what reasons have I got to doubt them now?”

© 2008 The Irish Times

Photograph: Mary Fitzgerald

Unprecedented success by British athletes at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing – best medals total for a hundred years – has had sports-lovers glued to the telly into the wee hours of the morning. Along with the cheers could be heard much nationalist rumbling, pro and con.

Take away Michael Phelps’ eight swimming golds and the American tally would not look so impressive, said some. As for China, who could possibly challenge a country with such a huge population?

Then others argued that if you put all the European nations together, their total would certainly be up there with the top two – though supporting neighbour nations is not what Europeans are about. Unlike Africans.

Africa had to wait until day seven to win its first gold medal, but the entire continent celebrated when Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia raced home in the women’s 10,000 metres. And there was more joy next day when Zimbabwe swimming champion Kirsty Coventry set a new world record.

A fascinating exploration of attitudes to national success emerged in Adnan Nawaz’s internet blog, hosted by the BBC, where he argued that there was a greater sense of continental kinship in Africa than anywhere else in the world.

Nigerian sports editor Adekunli Salami agreed, saying he celebrated Dibaba’s gold as if he was Ethiopian himself. It was all about African brotherhood, he said.
From the Czech Republic, Ghanaian Augustine Yeboah declared, “There is no question about continental solidarity in Africa. Wherever Africans meet, they say brother or sister. The continent is Mother Africa, we belong to one family.”

From Scotland, an African exile wrote, “I am in Glasgow, but I don’t pass any black person in the street without at least a nod of the head which is almost always reciprocated. Gregariousness is in our blood.”

Robin, a Chinese, “I agree. When I was studying in the UK, my African classmates were always together. I’m not saying they were not friendly to non-Africans, just the opposite but they were really united.”

There were contrary views. Wrote Tym, a Pole living in Britain, “Unity is not just about calling someone brother instead of mister.

“The fact that there is so much talk about unity in Africa shows there is a problem. I don’t even need a passport to travel more than half of Europe. Try this on any other continent.”
Another blogger said, “An African wins a gold and every country in Africa celebrates. Great! So why cannot they live together? African countries with multi tribes, chaos, sometimes genocide. Dare I mention Rwanda?”

One African questioned the basis of black brotherhood.

“Many sub-Saharan Africans (blacks) do not enthusiastically support teams from North Africa (Arabs). This tells me that we support teams based on the colour of their skins. Is this continental solidarity or narrow-minded tribalism? Why don’t we consider people from other countries and races to be our brothers?”

Wakuria disagreed, “Brotherhood has little to do with race. I was gleeful watching Ousama Mellouli win gold for Tunisia and of course, as a Kenyan, watching our darling Jason Dunford (quite white) was pure magic.”

Inevitably, there was bristling in the land of the tartan, with a Scot protesting at the sight of his compatriots swathed in the Union flag while God Save the Queen was played at the winners’ podium. “I’ll happily cheer on the rest of the countries of the British Isles when Scotland finally gets its independence,” he declared.

A Londoner responded, “Chris Hoy (a Scot) did not seem to have an aversion to the Union flag when he wrapped himself in one after winning gold or when his tears welled up to the sound of God Save The Queen.”

Some writers said if they did not have someone from their own country to support, they would back a Commonwealth team. One said it was dyed-in-the-wool and aged-in-the-cask rivalry – no New Zealander would ever support Australia any more than a Barcelona fan would hail Real Madrid or a Yankee fan back the Mets.

The Chinese contributor suggested it was all down to politics, saying his countrymen supported first their own athletes and then countries they were friendly with, like Tanzania, Mozambique, Pakistan and Russia. They opposed countries considered to be rivals, including the United States, France and Britain.

Australians took Britain’s Beijing’s successes particularly badly – especially in swimming, which they usually dominate. After Rebecca Adlington’s 400 metre freestyle gold started an avalanche of UK wins, John Coates, head of the Australian Olympic Committee, was asked for his thoughts.
“Not bad for a country that has no swimming pools and very little soap,” he cracked.

The chief executive of British swimming, David Sparkes, refused to rise to the bait. “I have no idea about the average Australian’s personal hygiene,” he deadpanned.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, a bewildered Peter Hanlon noted that “something utterly jaw-dropping has happened at these Games – the Brits have overtaken Australia in the medals table”.

But he had an excuse – Australian coaches were working for the old enemy. The 1978 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Shane Sutton was now guiding Britain’s sprinters. Worse, Sutton was suggesting there was camaraderie between the two sides, with Australians actually cheering British winners.

“And they weren’t sent home in disgrace!” wailed a horrified Hanlon.

Last word goes to Dave, a Briton who has lived in Zambia and Australia. He recalled, “While watching the World Cup, Zambians were confused when another English guy and myself celebrated Senegal beating France. They thought we would be sad because a European country had lost.

“We explained that firstly British people do not like very successful teams and therefore usually support the underdog, and secondly, we have so much history against European nations we find it hard to support them.”

Maybe that’s what it all comes down to – history.

……………

Mention racial harassment in Europe and you think of black or brown people or immigrants being abused by local whites. In Dublin, an Englishman was vilified by his Irish workmates and received £15,630 (Sh1.9 million) compensation.

The Briton, a pipe-fitter working on a building site, told an Irish equality tribunal that his fellow workers called him names, tried to make him sing Irish rebel songs and taunted him by reading accounts of sporting failures by English teams from the newspapers.

Some workers never spoke to him and when staff had to enter dangerous places on the site, they would say “Send the Brit in first”.

The pipe-fitter argued that he was made redundant because he was British. The tribunal disagreed with this but awarded the payout for racial harassment.

Commenting on a complaint from a Mr Arthur Purdey about a large gas bill, a spokesman for the North West Gas company said, “We agree it was rather high for the time of year. It is possible Mr Purdey has been charged for the gas used up during the explosion that destroyed his house.”

By GERRY LOUGHRAN gerryo69@hotmail.com

(SUNDAY NATION)

The Chinese government has doubled its scholarship to Africa to 4,000 students per year, Mr Yu Wenzhe, China Ambassador, has said.

He said the package was China’s contribution to help Africa to achieve its goals.

Mr Wenzhe said this at a reception hosted for 34 Ghanaian students who have received Chinese government scholarships for 2008/2009 academic year.

The National Scholarship Secretariat, ministries and other institutions recommended the students.

Mr Wenzhe said his government valued these educational scholarships as means of boosting friendship between the two countries and urged the students to learn hard and pass on the knowledge acquired for the benefit of the country.

Mr Wenzhe said China was also helping the University of Ghana in making Chinese language attractive to students of the university.

Mr Felix Lansah, Registrar of the National Scholarship Secretariat, appealed to the beneficiaries to be worthy ambassadors by applying themselves diligently to their studies and exhibiting the highest sense of discipline.

He said Ghana, as a country hoping to become a middle income country by 2015, would always take the opportunity to learn the values and work ethics of China.

Mr Samuel Owusu, a student, on behalf of his colleagues thanked the Chinese government and said the opportunity would enrich their experience both academically and culturally.

He said they would be law abiding and go about their academic work with all the diligence it deserved.

Source: GNA

A while ago when Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, I wrote a blog to explain why it was unlikely for him to pick the latter as his running mate. I used “handsome” to describe him, and one of the responses was “What? Do you consider Obama handsome?”

Sure, I think he is a good-looking guy. But soon I was drowned out in the debate as more and more people joined my challenger and questioned my aesthetic wisdom.

So, I tried to think from the perspective of an ordinary Chinese netizen, without the knowledge of Obama’s eloquence, poise or his insight on race relations. He may not be as eye-catching as Denzel Washington, but he can certainly score pretty high on the point of physical attractiveness.

Surprisingly, many disagreed with me, and their thinking process was very interesting. For example, I thought slim was good in this era of body image consciousness, but many Chinese netizens seem to have got their standards of beauty of black Americans from telecasts of NBA games. One said it took him a while to recognize “black beauty” and now that Obama does not look like a typical NBA player it is hard for him to be categorized as physically appealing.

In fact, so many respondents cited NBA as their biggest exposure that it is not a stretch to say people like Kobe Bryant have become the benchmark for China’s youths to size up black males. Where does that leave Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Hollywood’s efforts in shaping global perception of black Americans? Obviously, not half as effective as the ubiquitous basketball player as far as China’s vast basketball fan base is concerned, and they have not even experienced the magic of Michael Jordan.

Chinese and blacks seem to occupy two ends of the aesthetic spectrum. A lot of trends started by blacks, such as hip-hop, reached China via middlemen like white American and Korean singers, losing much of the authenticity in the process. Even then, it is somewhat jarring to see a Chinese youth, with soft-toned skins and smaller features, don the XXL-sized attire of striking colors, which compliments a black teenager so naturally.

On the other hand, martial arts flicks reach the black demographic through mainstream channels like Blockbuster rental and mass-appeal products such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It is not an exaggeration to say that the middle ground is firmly in the hands of Middle America, whose aesthetic values serve as a filter for exchange between non-white ethnicities and races. For example, unless for a function of ethnic diversity, a black would not wear an African tribal dress, nor would a Chinese put on a Tang-style costume. Most likely, they would both sport a business suit because it is the sartorial middle ground. If they do appear with their traditional garb, the outfit will be judged against the suit.

For a Chinese without constant contact with or exposure to black Americans, Obama’s look can only be extrapolated and evaluated by being imagined as a white person. It simply cannot be done. I have come upon a diary of a young Chinese journalist who did a comparison of Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright, and it was condescendingly unfair. I guess the only black ladies familiar to a regular guy on a Beijing street are Whitney Houston or Halle Berry.

It has dawned on me that movie star beauty is an inaccurate barometer for a whole race. It may distort perception. The best way to get rid of misunderstanding and prejudice is to know as many people as possible of the race or ethnicity previously unknown to you. By then you’ll be able to see Obama - not as another Denzel Washington or Kobe Bryant - but as a charismatic politician that he is.

E-mail: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn

(CHINADAILY)

After a century of broken promises, a paved road linking Kenya to Ethiopia is no longer a mirage for a desert region choked by remoteness.

Hurling up a cloud of blinding white dust, Chinese road engineers are helping to lay down the first kilometers of tarmac to replace a 530-km (330-mile) forbidding rock track that joins Kenya’s farms and port to landlocked Ethiopia.

The stretch of road from Isiolo to Moyale on the border is one of the last unpaved sections of the Great North Road, a British colonial dream to connect Cape Town to Cairo.

But where Britain and post-independence Kenyan governments failed, China is leading the way: helping to build a major trade route that will open up the northern half of Kenya, a region that has been effectively sealed off for 100 years.

In what is a now familiar sight across Africa, China’s drive to secure minerals, oil, and a place for its workers and industries to thrive is converging with Kenyan government plans to tap the potential of undeveloped regions.

The road could turn promises of oil into reality and increase tourism and trade in a starkly beautiful land where, until now, only banditry, desolation and poverty had flourished.

“This progress is going to benefit the whole area for tourism. Once it is finished, we can already see more trade,” said Wu Yi Bao, project manager for the state-owned construction company China Wu Yi (Kenya) Co.

China Wu Yi is building the road with 4.3 billion Kenya shillings ($63.94 million) from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Kenyan government.

According to AfDB estimates, paving the road between Isiolo, 340 km (211 miles) north of the capital Nairobi, and Moyale could boost trade between Kenya and Ethiopia along that corridor fivefold to $175 million from the present $35 million annually.

Trade between China and Kenya last year was worth $959 million, a 48 percent rise over 2006, according to the Chinese embassy in Kenya.

‘NOT PART OF KENYA’

The tarmac of the Cape-to-Cairo road goes missing at the squared-off edge of pavement at the end of Isiolo.

Here one finds all the restless bustle of a quintessential border town because residents say it’s the frontier between the “Kenya Mbili” — Swahili for the two Kenyas.

“People in the north feel like they are not part of the country,” said Hussein Sasura, assistant minister for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands. “When someone leaves for Nairobi, people say he has gone to Kenya.”

Hopes are high that the revamped road will draw more tourists and create more revenue for the people living here.

But some people are suspicious of China’s motives, mirroring the ambivalence towards the Asian giant’s investment push felt by many Africans.

Residents of some African nations, like Zambia, complain that China is undertaking a second colonization by focusing on Africa’s resources and dumping its cheapest goods here. China denies this, and has a 50-year history of bilateral trade and cooperation with Kenya.

The Chinese have an immediate interest in rebuilding the first stretch of the Isiolo-Moyale road, so that it can move heavy equipment into Merti, roughly 80 km (50 miles) east of the end of the 136 km (84.5 miles) it has committed to build.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum AB are carrying out seismic tests for oil in Merti in preparation for drilling next year.

Residents in Isiolo have been suspicious of oil exploration since a 1980s venture yielded nothing amid murky circumstances.

There are other signs of simmering resentment.

One Chinese engineer was shot and killed near the Merille River by shiftas — or bandits — on April 21. Tribal elders say he was targeted because of a feeling that not enough men from the area had been employed by the Chinese.

Wu said at least 150 of the nearly 200 people on the project were Kenyans and all the day laborers were locals.

After the shooting, the Kenyan government sent its elite paramilitary General Service Unit to the Merille River area to disarm youths and provide a security presence.

HIDDEN GEMS

There is little doubt the road will offer a lifeline to northern Kenya and could signal an end to years of neglect.

Under colonial rule, Isiolo was an outpost at the edge of the closed Northern Frontier District, which spanned the top half of Kenya from Uganda and Sudan in the west, across Ethiopia to Somalia in the east.

“In those days, Europeans were not allowed to stay there because it was too dangerous and the climate was too harsh. You had to have a permit,” said George Cardovillis, a Kenyan descended from Greek traders who wanted to set up shop at the Ethiopia-Kenya border in 1914.

The government ordered them to keep going more than 600 km (373 miles) south to Maralal.

North of Isiolo to Ethiopia, not much has changed across desolate stretches of black volcanic stones and reddish sands since Cardovillis’ forebears trekked south in a donkey train.

The sun still blasts shimmering heat waves down from an enveloping sky. Mountains loom in a gunmetal haze across the plains. Water is scarce. Electricity, telephone lines and most other services barely exist.

Amid this desolate beauty are some of Kenya’s most unspoiled national parks, rarely visited because of their remoteness.

Barely 50 km (31 miles) past Isiolo lie three game reserves that rival the famed Maasai Mara for the volume and variety of animals. This is where “Born Free” author and naturalist Joy Adamson settled to raise leopards until her murder.

“We think our occupancies will double when the road is finished,” said Jayne Nguatah, manager of the Sarova Shaba lodge in Shaba park. “It will be a Christmas gift to us.”

The Sarova Shaba is built on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro river, where crocodiles feed and Samburu and Borana herdsmen water their animals. Baboons and monkeys roam the main lodge, which is built like a treehouse and straddles a natural spring.

But infrastructure is not the only problem for those seeking to build a viable tourism industry in northern Kenya.

Banditry and tribal clashes are common here, thanks to weapons flowing in from past and present conflicts in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. And security forces are spread thin.

Nomadic herders roam for pasture and water for their sheep, cows, goats and camels, as they have for centuries. But today, some carry AK-47 assault rifles, while others brandish Sterling-Enfield rifles from colonial times.

And despite the Chinese engineers’ industry near Isiolo, far to the north in Moyale, some people doubt the road will ever reach them. Plans to extend the tarmac beyond the stretch being reworked by the Chinese are still on the drawing board.

“For 45 years they have been promising us that road,” trader Gumucha Gisiko said, waving his hand dismissively as a frown rose above his red henna beard.

“Seeing is believing.”

(Additional reporting by Patrick Muiruri)

(Reuters)