A conspicuous building stands on the intersection of Huanshi Road Central and the fork that splits into Tongxin Road and Xiaobei Road in downtown Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

Walking across the footbridge that encircles three sides of the intersection and leads into the second floor of the building, you see a constant parade of people that few would associate with the southern Chinese metropolis.

Most of the people on this bridge are tall, dark-skinned, and often have mobile phones pressed hard to their ears. A few women wear colourful and exotic dresses.

The African enclave in Guangzhou, which centres on the Tianxiu Building, is a testament to the vibrant trade that is flourishing at the grass-roots level in some parts of China. These are not businessmen who check into swanky hotels and negotiate in oversized conference rooms or over banquet tables. They sample the merchandise and bargain with the vendors while counting the banknotes.

Tianxiu is not a regular office building. It is crammed with row upon row of small stores that function more as showrooms: they do not cater for walk-in shoppers, but instead focus on taking orders and making shipments.

It is very easy to tell the sellers from the buyers. The seller is a typically Chinese, speaking in Putonghua and a few words of English, and always with a strong Cantonese accent. The buyer is an African who speaks some English with a clear French tint. 

Of late, there has been an increase in African-owned businesses. Bargaining is conducted through an ingenious use of the few English words such as "nice" and "cheap," coupled with furious punching on the calculator and a lot of hand gestures. Rarely is a translator employed.

Exact data is not available from the local government as many of the Africans travel on non-business visas and much of their business is conducted in cash. But in the context of Chinese trade with Africa, the volume has increased leaps and bounds.

According to Ministry of Commerce statistics, China and Africa had a trade volume of US$32 billion in the first 10 months of last year, a 39 per cent increase from the same period of 2004. But slightly more than half of that trade came in the form of imports from Africa with a particular surge in oil imports from Sudan.

Of the US$15.25 billion in exports to Africa, about 40 per cent of them are mechanical and electronic products. Clothes and other textiles make up 19 per cent, and other high-tech products about 8 per cent.

The main trade partners are Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan, but the smaller countries have a share as well, whether it's recorded or not.

"Most of (us) here are from West Africa," said Tokoma Konate, "and the majority of us are from either Mali or Guinea."

Konate, a Malian, was spotted talking into his mobile phone in Chinese with a surprising degree of fluency. "They call me Ah Long, the Dragon," he said with a laugh.

He has been doing business in Guangzhou for four years. Before that, he was in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province's capital, for two years.

"I've never taken a single lesson in Chinese. Doing business in China is the best way to pick up the language," he said, rattling off a string of useful phrases he had recently learned.

Haven for trading

What has made Guangzhou such a magnet for these African importers, according to several of them, is "quantity, quality and price." But not everyone agrees on every aspect.

"In terms of pricing, shoes sold in Guangzhou are less competitive now than when I first got here," said Koumaglo Magloire, of Togo in West Africa, who has been working in the city for six years.

Magloire ships about eight 40-foot containers of shoes to Togo every year. The merchandise is customized for African consumers, and there is a rich variety of styles for him to choose from. "But the service is quite good, and I've never encountered major problems," he added.

As a one-man operation, Magloire stays in Guangzhou for a month at a time and spends the rest of the time travelling back and forth. He rents a 40-square-metre apartment in the nearby area, at 2,500 yuan (US$312.50) a month.

A one-way plane ticket from his home country to China costs US$1,275. "My family does not travel with me; I have to do all the running around," he explained.

Like Magloire, most people in the African community are either single men or men who leave their wives and children behind to be closer to their businesses. Increasingly, family members are joining them, though.

But unlike Magloire, most do not specialize in a single kind of merchandise. Clothing seems to be the most popular category, and everything else available in a Wal-Mart store is bought and sold in bulk and finds its way to the African market.

Not everyone in the African market is black. There are quite a few merchants from North Africa, who identify themselves as Arabs rather than Africans.

Alla Eldeen Esmael, an Egyptian, has nothing but praise for his experience in China: "I used to import from America and Europe, but now I buy only from China. China has everything I need, even American products," he said, referring to things made by US-branded corporations in China.

Every two months, he ships 20 containers from China, not only from the Guangzhou area, but from all over the country. His routine is to inspect a factory near Shanghai, who has been his supplier for a long time, and then stay a couple of weeks in Guangzhou while making sure his shipments are sent to his warehouses in Egypt and Dubai.

"Do you know how much wood veneer I can ship in one container?" he asked. "One hundred thousand US dollars worth of it." He took out a few samples from his briefcase. The thin layer of wood patterns is used to plaster over furniture, he explained.

"China has so much to offer for the African market," he said. "I feel I want to buy everything. And shifting from more upscale places, I feel the prices here are quite acceptable."

However, Esmael has one complaint: The Chinese Embassy issues him only a single-entry visa rather than the multiple entries he requests. "They give me 90 days, but I don't need to stay that long," he said "I need to make side trips to places like Hong Kong, and each time I have to apply for another visa. It is extremely inconvenient for people like us, who are helping the Chinese economy."

Life as outsiders

According to Esmael, those from West and Central Africa tend to stay in Guangzhou for long periods of time, while those from North Africa and the Middle East move around more. But they have one thing in common: They like the same kind of food.

Adel, also an Egyptian, works at the Moka Coffee Shop on the ground floor of the Tianxiu Building. During lunchtime, the food stall outside the shop sells huge numbers of shawerma.

Shawerma is a type of kebab: Two lumps of chicken and beef are roasted on vertical spits, and the meat is shaved off from the outside as the spits rotate. It is then wrapped in tortilla-like sheets of bread, together with diced onions and tomatoes. "It is the most popular Arabic food, and everyone here loves it," he said.

At 15 yuan (US$1.85) a piece, the shawerma is slightly more expensive than a decent Chinese box lunch, but business is brisk at Adel's stall and another one on the east side of the building.

Konate, the Chinese-speaking Malian, says he has not got used to Chinese food yet and eats only chicken and fish on a Chinese menu.

Moka was the first restaurant in Guangzhou to offer authentic Arabic food, Adel said. Many of its staff members are Arabs. But it's more of a caf; there are now several full-scale Arabic restaurants in the area.

"We hire Chinese employees, too. But they are also Muslims," Adel explained. "That way, there's no cultural miscommunication."

Most of the African and Middle Eastern merchants in this community are Muslims. Some of them regularly attend a Friday afternoon service at a mosque on Guangda Road. It starts at 1 pm, with the Imam speaking for half an hour and then leading a session of prayers for another half an hour.

"We are not rigorous; you can go or not go," Esmael said, with Adel concurring. "It's not mandatory at all, just like Christians going to a church service."

Despite living among the locals, communication is a hurdle for most people. The extroverted ones will greet Chinese with "Ni hao!" but most keep outside contact to the absolutely necessary.

Adel is an exception. The all-smiling chef is dating a Chinese girl from Shenzhen.

"We use a hybrid of Chinese and English," he said.

Life has improved for Africans as more have moved to the city. "We get along with everyone, but things were different a few years ago," Konate said.

"When I got on a bus, a few passengers would avoid me like the plague."

By far the biggest problem is counterfeit bills. Since cash business is the norm, countless 100-yuan bank notes change hands every day. Fortunately, local authorities are vigilant: A few days ago there was a scuffle just outside the building. Police officers grabbed two Chinese youths by their arms and led them to a patrol car. "They were caught selling fake money," muttered one of the cops.

The influx of African traders has been a boon to local businesses. Tianxiu and several office buildings on the south side of Huanshi Road have loading docks that resemble a busy bus terminal. Even on the north side, which is more or less the living quarters of the African enclave, stores that cater to their needs are always busy.

In the Mingfa Suitcase Store, Africans drive a hard bargain. "Even if I knock the price down by half, it's still more expensive than the store two bus stops away," said a potential customer.

Only when one observes closely the negotiating process does one realize that Cantonese and Africans share a similar business streak.

Even though the number of words they can use to talk to each other is limited, they intuitively understand the thinking process of the other side.

It's that inner connection that helps keep trade flowing between the markets in China and Africa.

Editor: Yan