No heart of darkness on my trip

My misconceptions were quickly debunked as I took the inaugural China Southern direct flight from Guangzhou to a friendly Nairobi

Three years ago, a friend told me that he spent almost 24 hours traveling from Beijing via two different cities to reach Kenya.

"But it is absolutely worth it for the splendid great migration on the savanna," he emphasized, referring to the huge seasonal movement of wild animals such as wildebeest.

Since that time, I was very curious about the African savanna but it seemed very far away. I never expected to get to the region in any way but through a similarly lengthy journey.

I also still worried a little about safety there before I departed, although it turned out that my fear was unjustified.

Fortunately, I got to be one of the 200-plus passengers on China Southern Airlines' first flight from Guangzhou, in Guangdong province, to Nairobi, capital of Kenya, on Aug 5.

The flight departed at midnight from Guangzhou and arrived in the early morning in Nairobi after 11 hours.

The flight was perfect for sleeping, and, I sank into sleep as soon as we took off.

There were two meals, including dinner after departure and breakfast before landing, but I skipped both to sleep. I'm not so fond of in-flight meals, so I didn't miss them, but some Chinese passengers told me they cherished the in-flight food because it was from China. They had doubts about how the local food would suit them.

That Airbus 330 aircraft was full and most of the passengers were Chinese excited to visit Kenya.

About an hour before landing, I talked with a Congolese man, one of the only two African passengers. I was so surprised that while he is Congolese, his trip started in Japan - his wife is Japanese.

He told me it is cheaper and easier to fly through Guangzhou to reach Nairobi and then his hometown.

Before talking with him, I assumed Chinese and Africans living in China would be the only passengers for the Guangzhou-Nairobi route.

A China Southern employee told me Japan and South Korea are also the route's target markets because there are no direct flights from the two countries to Africa and it is the shortest way for those passengers to get there.

We received a warm welcome from local residents in Nairobi that included traditional song and dance as soon as the plane's doors opened.

The route is not just significant for Chinese airlines as their only direct route connecting China and the continent at present, but also important for Africa, given that China has become the world's largest outbound tourism market.

Chinese tourists I talked to on board, who were excited to be going to Kenya, shared my opinion that the Chinese airline's direct flight will lure more Chinese travelers to visit the continent.

"We prefer Chinese airlines, which have no language or cultural differences," says a young mother traveling with her son.

It is not easy for Chinese carriers to break into the market in Africa, especially Kenya, where local and Gulf airlines have been the big players for years.

In Nairobi, I saw many airlines' outdoor advertisements, including Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways. Naturally, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is dominated by Kenya Airways' planes. It is clear that China Southern has its job cut out for it in the African market.

While I was well-prepared with medicines and vaccines for my four-day stay, Nairobi surprised me. Local friends kept correcting my many misunderstandings about the country.

The air quality in Africa generally is much better than that of Beijing, where rapid growth has brought air pollution. I enjoyed the clean and moist air in Kenya.

While we imagine African nations close to the equator as hot and steamy - the equator runs through the middle of Kenya - this is not always true. Actually, August is Kenya's coolest season and Nairobi, at 1,795 meters above sea level, can be a little chilly at times. It is hot in the noontime sun, but in the early morning and at night the temperature can drop to 15 C.

"We went to Africa to avoid the summer heat in Beijing," a colleague says.

Mosquitoes comprised another of my misunderstandings. Before leaving China, I was told to pay attention to mosquitoes in Africa because they spread malaria, and I took three different kinds of mosquito repellent with me.

I wore a long-sleeved coat and trousers even in the warm daytime hours, and some local friends laughed at me. They said perhaps I might find that protection useful in some other cities and remote areas in Africa, but not Nairobi.

"Mosquitoes in Nairobi do not carry malaria," a local friend tells me. The last day I was in Nairobi, I was bitten by a mosquito, but no problems so far.

Local residents looked relaxed and enthusiastic, but the tight security in Nairobi reminded me the regional situation is not so calm. Every hotel and market I saw in the city had security checks, and most of the communities have electric fences and tall iron gates.

However, after I saw groups of zebra, gnu and giraffe eating grass on the savanna, as well as families of lions looking for prey and vultures flying above waiting for scraps, I knew this is what my friend who had visited Kenya was talking about when it said the journey was worth it.

wangwen@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/28/2015 page7)