Creatingeverlasting Memories

A social network platform provides customized services to Chinese tourists in Africa and helps bring the two peoples closer together

Bobuafrica encourages responsible travel and hopes that more Chinese can act as cultural ambassadors by communicating in depth with local Africans. This helps us get to know Africa better and vice versa.

IMAGINE having front-row seats in the middle of the African savannah to observe the yearly great wildlife migration - a roaring throng of hundreds of thousands of wildebeests and zebras traveling across Tanzania and Kenya in search of better grazing.

This is what Zhang Fang, Professor of Agronomy at Zhejiang University, experienced in August 2016, during his trip to East Africa, which the 63-year-old says is one of the most impressive journeys in which he took part. “Thanks to this trip, I had the opportunity to observe many wild animals, discover picturesque landscapes that are unique to Africa, and take part in interactive activities with local residents. It was memorable and wonderful!”

He owes this extraordinary experience to Bobuafrica, a Chinese social-network platform enabling travelers to discover the continent. To take full advantage of his trip, before departure, Zhang talked several times with Bobuafrica employees, who know the destinations inside out, provided detailed advice and arranged a customized itinerary for him. Then, in the company of an experienced Bobuafrica guide, he embarked with 12 other travel enthusiasts like him on an exceptional 16-day adventure. “What attracted me the most in Bobuafrica was its rich and inspiring information, its personalized routes and powerful tracking services,” Zhang told Chinafrica.

Created in 2014, Bobuafrica aims at telling the Africa story by offering engaging journeys and selling unique products, enabling Chinese tourists to enjoy a multidimensional experience of the continent’s culture and charm, explains co-founder Shi Yingying. set foot on her land, visited her villages lit up with oil lamps, walked in Kigali’s business district in Rwanda, and dug up from the ground cassava roots with local women,” Shi told Chinafrica.

In March 2013, while delivering a speech at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Center in Dar es Salaam during his state visit to Tanzania, Chinese President Xi Jinping praised two Chinese young people who had contributed to Sino-tanzanian friendship. Inspired by this, Shi decided to do something to help improve Sino-african relations. Later, in 2014, after completing her mission with Xinhua News Agency, she returned to Africa to start a new professional career aimed at building bilateral relations, hence the creation