Love knows no boundaries
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania – When talking about his beautiful Tanzanian wife, Dilshat Tursun, a 30-year-old Chinese man, could not help but wear a broad smile on his face.
Dilshat, from Kashgar city in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, and his wife Hadiya Msham Abdulla, from Tanzania’s Zanzibar, have been leading a happy life since they tied the knot in Kashgar more than three years ago.
“We first met in 2016 when we were university students. I was studying at Fujian Medical University, and he was studying at Fuzhou University,” Hadiya said.
They lived together in a university town and always met at a local restaurant that served Xinjiang food, which Hadiya was obsessed with. They went there every weekend to enjoy the delicious food and ambiguous love chemistry, and slowly fell in love.
“He was handsome, spoke good English, and played basketball well, and I often went to see him play basketball when I was in school,” Hedia recalled.
They eventually married in Xinjiang in May 2020 and travelled to Zanzibar in 2023 to celebrate their wedding with her family.
“My family was quite shocked when I told them I was going to marry a Chinese man because they thought there would be many difficulties for an intermarried couple,” Hadiya said. “But coping with different cultures is very easy because we are all human beings, and our basic needs are the same: to breathe, to eat, and to sleep.”
Still, she spared no effort to learn the Chinese culture, and Dilshat also tried hard to learn the Zanzibari culture, and in a way, they blended very well. “After all, love conquers all,” her husband said.
After getting married, they opened a coffee shop in the old city of Kashgar where the ancient Silk Road passes. “Endless tourists visit there every year, and our coffee shop, called Dilihediya, helps us make a living,” Dilshat said.
Now they have a one-year-old son named Mayir Dilshat. They teach their son several languages, including English, Kiswahili – Tanzania’s official language – and Chinese.
“He picks up a few words from here, a few words from there. Now he can speak two Kiswahili words, one English word and one Chinese word, but at some point in his life he will catch up with all the languages,” the mother said, expressing her hope for her son.
The couple came to visit the family in Zanzibar again in January this year for the holidays. During their vacation, they travelled to almost every corner of Zanzibar and recently visited Mikumi National Park in Morogoro.
“It was a memorable visit. It was a dream come true for my husband because he always saw the animals on TV. He was very happy and excited to see the animals, including lions, elephants, zebras and giraffes, some of which are special because you can’t find them in the Asian continent.”
She added that they are sending a lot of messages to China about what they have seen in the national park, and they will be promoting Tanzania so that more Chinese visit Tanzania for tourism.
Msham Abdulla Khamis, Hadiya’s father, 72, said that he respected his daughter’s choice of love.
“My daughter and her husband live very peacefully and enjoy life together. So many people admire them and visit their coffee shop. They go there not just to drink coffee, but to observe how a Chinese and an African couple live together in harmony.
“Thanks to the existing friendship between the two countries that has been in place for the past six decades. It has provided a chance for a Chinese boy and a Tanzanian girl to meet and fall in love with each other,” – Xinhua