The concept of the Chinese wise man about the five elements of the world is very well known everywhere – water, fire, metal, wood and earth. The idea of the two driving forces of nature to mankind – Yin and Yang (light and darkness, sky and earth, man and woman) is known by all the nations on the planet.

Free from the forces and self-importance of life in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, where the struggles of the middle class are over who drives the latest model of which car, and who lives in the posh neighbourhoods.

In Freetown, many people, especially the young, are obsessed with the repulsive celebrity philosophy, whose lifestyle sparkles so much that it can blind you.

Landing from the heights of Freetown’s razzle-dazzle, Beijing humbles you.

First, if your heart was in your mouth as the aeroplane shook and trembled in the summer season, then your heart will be in your hand on the ground as you take the bus from Beijing Airport, to Beijing City.

You can tell who is a foreigner by the anxious look in their faces, as the bus passes through the city.

I have been waiting to get to China for the last 20 years. I reported on the country recently, from the safety of Freetown.

I watched my favourite Chinese movies back home, but never made it to China. So when an opportunity arose, to go and be trained as a journalist at the SAPFRT, I seized the opportunity with both hands and feet!

Perching from the Airport at Beijing, you can immediately tell the state of employment in the country, by what I called “the Chinese do it all” concept.

The drive through the streets immediately brings home the effects of strength, discipline and unity.

The city is planned, with lots of formal settlements, and the infrastructure is bursting at the seams.

There is a serious problem of who should help the Chinese people eat their food; food self-sufficiency is at the pinnacle.

The current government, which has put a lot of effort into infrastructure projects, technology and stabilising the economy, has its work cut out.

The people of China are desperate to be free from the threats of diseases like laziness, malaria and external control.

The people there are warm and friendly, whether it is as a result of trying to forget the pain of the past or not, it is clear they love to have a good time.

Everywhere you go, you will find malls and social places where people gather to set themselves free from the struggles of the week through drinking, food and laughter.

So I had more than my fair share of the Chinese food. For a West African, the pepper in the food is on the side of less, and so a spoon of sieved-pepper is always at hand – much to the amusement of my hosts.

Unlike Sierra Leone, there society is united by one political party; the Communist Party of China (CPC), apparently the only that has ruled that great nation. And the issues are never the same – affordable housing, literacy rate very high, food “boku”, employment very high and a suitable definition of good governance and democracy gives the people so much hope in their leaders.

After my second week there, I was ready to explore some of the broadcasting houses and the Inner Mongolia Daily.

Inner Mongolia 

The visit at the museum in Hohhot in Inner Mongolia thrills my instinct on the tourism sector and the achievements made by the People’s Republic of China in that part of the country. Though a developing autonomous region, as I was told by the facilitators and tour guide, yet in my eyes it’s a splendid city with lots to write home about.

The museum was built with sapphire marbles and decorated with beautiful flowers shaped in different forms right through its perimeter fence and security personnel post on routine to provide security. Thousands of tourists from different parts of the world and within visit that museum on a daily basis. I was keen to feel the Inner Mongolian culture.

In our own case, 30 media practitioners from Sierra Leone were privileged to have a good guide who explained every bit of the item on each floor.

Just after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, it was threatened by the nuclear powers in order to break the nuclear monopoly and consolidate the new people’s political regime, China’s first generation of leaders led by comrade Mao Zedong profoundly realized that it was necessary to develop cutting-edge technologies in national defense and build a strong national defense force.

The Party Central Committee decided to build comprehensive experiment based for missile in the territory of Ejina banner of Inner Mongolia and this strategic decision-making received warm support and acclamation from party committee and government’s leaders and also people of all ethnic groups in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Ejina banner government and the local herdsmen who had lived there for generations dedicated their tens of thousands of square kilometres of grassland to the construction of China’s national defense base.

The older generation of scientists and staff of the base had achieved many significant achievements in national defense and aerospace technology through painstaking research exploration.

To support the national defense and aerospace industry, from April 1958, Ejina banner government let out tens of thousands of square kilometres of land; the banner government move to a place 140 kilometres away from the original site with which there were also two sumu and a Lamasery moved.

The entire population of the migration covered one third of the population of the banner, more than half of the total of livestock of the banner moved and gave up 3,000 meters arable lands.

Wow it was a great experience-the train, food, escalator in malls- and it was my first experience to use the subway. When I entered the train it was excited-I took pictures and filmed scenes. 

I never knew how to get the tickets until I was schooled. The most hilarious thing was when I could not locate the exit points; I spent about three hours in the subway searching for the exit points. That moment is a great memory that I will never forget in haste.

The most unfortunate part was when one of our team members fell down while using the escalator at the subway, I turned to offer some help and coincidentally some police officers were approaching us so I thought I had committed an offence for trying to help a friend.

I immediately doubled my steps; dodged until after about 5-10minutes and the officers were out of sight then I came out and we all screamed in laughter.

Shopping experience

When we went out to shop and asked for prices in English the traders increased the prices of items. So we were forced to speak the Chinese language.

THE GREAT WALL EXPERIENCE

The visit at the great wall was a blessing in disguise worth admirable, I found out that it’s indeed tourist friendly. Different people from across the globe visit the 10, 000 miles Great Wall on a daily basis.

The experience at the Forbidden City was awesome. I learnt how the 24 Emperors lived their lives and how they governed the people at the time.