Times change and so do perceptions. In 2000, the Economist magazine, in a cover story, depicted Africa as "the hopeless continent". But last year, the same magazine did another cover story on Africa, but with a different theme. The cover showed the silhouette of a giraffe on a prairie, with its long neck indicating Africa's sharp economic growth curve and promise.
When the going gets tough, Wuhan Iron and Steel gets going seems to be the refrain that is propelling the Chinese steelmaker to dig deeper in Africa for natural resources, even as it encounters rough headwinds in the domestic market.
It is now accepted, not least by the Chinese government, that Chinese economic growth has reached a new, lower range of somewhere between 7 percent and 8 percent. Of course, this growth rate could fall further in the years ahead.
As the US gradually recovers from recession and grows economically and diplomatically again, emerging markets watch China closely and wonder how its performance will affect them.
He Shaoqiang, 60, is one of thousands of porters in Chongqing, the metropolis in Southwest China. With a rope and a bamboo stick, he can still carry 100-kilogram loads through the hilly streets of the city.
At a news conference that was broadcast worldwide in March, a US journalist asked Chinese Premier Li Keqiang what he thought would be a comfortable growth rate for China.
In a May Day special report, we profile what impact rising wages and changing demographics are having on the country
It's 8 am in Shenzhen, and outside Foxconn, the better part of the mega-factory's 160,000 employees are coming on or off shift.
Foxconn, other manufacturing giants, and several prominent academics have added their voice to a growing call for more Chinese students to learn practical skills-based vocational training.
When Li Zhiqiang was less than 14 he worked in a tiny noodle restaurant with only a handful of other staff cooking noodles all day. He was paid 50 yuan a month.
The young man guns his motorcycle, weaving manically through heavy traffic on one of Beijing's outer ring roads. He barely slows as he navigates through cars and trucks clogging the lanes.
Lu Erfeng has just handed in his resignation. After almost four years of punching out chips for Apple gadgets on the manufacturing line at Foxconn in Shenzhen, the 21-year-old migrant worker from Henan province says he has had enough.
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