Chinese cuisine is becoming an increasingly popular choice in Tanzania, with the mouthwatering flavors enticing both locals and visitors alike and helping build bridges for cross-cultural exchanges through people's palates.
The emergence of Chinese flavors appearing on dinner tables and restaurants throughout the east African country comes as more Chinese natives are making the long journey and setting up businesses far from home.
Among them is Han Baoming, a culinary trailblazer who took a leap of faith just a year ago, leaving his homeland to infuse Tanzania with the essence of Chinese cuisine. He is now serving as a chef in a Halal Restaurant in Dar es salaam, the largest city in east Africa.
"Most people love soup noodles and [skewers] and special Chinese rice. Every day we have so many customers. Tanzanian customers, Chinese customers, American customers and [people] from many countries come here," said Han.
From delicately crafted dumplings to Chinese-inspired fast food, the restaurants here serve a variety of dishes made of fresh ingredients, drawing in droves of discerning diners.
In addition to the tasty food, many customers are also attracted to enjoy a feast of flavors at an affordable price.
Along with serving up traditional classics, these Chinese restaurants are also offering dishes that incorporate local ingredients, with the chefs increasingly using locally-sourced products and flavors to create exciting new culinary blends that are more appealing to customers
"They provide us with a wide variety of food options. Whether I go on my own or with my bosses, going to different restaurants makes us really happy. It's very good," said Mohammad Seif, a local customer.
Chinese cuisine gains popularity in Tanzania as local diners lap up flavors
Two and a half decades of sustained wildlife conservation efforts have seen the population recovery of multiple rare wild animal species in a nature reserve of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
Images of foraging or frolicking wild animals such as snub-nosed monkeys, takins and musk deer, all under first-class protection in China, have recently been captured by infrared cameras set up in the vast reserve in Zhouzhi County of the provincial capital Xi'an.
What made one of the sightings pleasantly rare was that all three of the most protected spices were spotted by the same camera for the first time, indicating the notable growth in the populations of these wild animals since the cameras were first set up at the reserve in 2013.
"We spotted five or six takins, a lot of snub-nosed monkeys that appear intermittently in four to five groups with each group having about 10, two musk deers, and many wild boars," said He Yalou, head of a management station of the reserve, who said that only one of these first-class protected wild animals or a small number of second-class protected animals could be spotted by one camera in previous years.
According to another staff member, since a project was launched 25 years ago to protect the ecological system of forests, the reserve has seen a steady increase in the populations of all kinds of wild animals including four first-class protected species and nearly 20 second-class protected ones.
"As the protected habitats of these animals steadily recover, there has been an increasingly wider distribution of these animals. Since wild animals may appear in every corner of the forests, we need to step up management and protection work to ensure the safety of wild animal resources in the reserve and the harmonious co-existence of humans and animals," said Ding Qiaozhou, head of the resource monitoring and fire prevention division of the reserve.
On Oct. 10, forest police and crews from Zhouzhi County's forestry authority and the provincial rare wild animal research center jointly rescued a Chinese serow, a second-class protected wild animal which had wandered into a local village and became agitated.
The authorities said the animal is receiving proper care and will be released to the wild soon.
Sustained conservation efforts lead to recovery of wildlife populations in Shaanxi
