President William Ruto paid a successful state visit to China this April. During this visit, the two heads of state agreed to elevate the bilateral relations to China-Kenya Community with a shared future for the new era and reached important consensus on deepening exchanges and cooperation across the board, among which is the decision to hold the 2025 China-Kenya Culture and Tourism Season.
This is the first time the two countries will hold such an event. Now, the two sides are stepping up discussions to implement the consensus of the two heads of state and have agreed to hold the opening ceremony of the China-Kenya Culture and Tourism Season on June 6. This will be a defining moment in the cultural and tourism cooperation between our two countries.
China and Kenya have diversified and colourful culture. Though separated by vast oceans and situated respectively on Asian and African continents, friendly exchanges between the two countries date back to ancient times.
Over 600 years ago, the fleet of admiral Zheng He, the celebrated explorer in Ming Dynasty, visited places like Mombasa and Malindi along the East African coast, sowing seeds of China-Kenya friendship.
The formal establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries in 1963 heralded a new chapter of friendly exchanges. Since then, bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields have deepened.
In 1983, a group of Kenyan teenage students travelled to China to learn acrobatics. In the subsequent two years, they studied Chinese culture in earnest, trained diligently to hone their skills and successfully accomplished the mission. Upon returning to Kenya, they dedicated themselves to innovation and breakthroughs in acrobatic art by fusing African culture with Chinese acrobatics, thus promoting cultural exchanges between China and Kenya. They are still active on the stage. It is precisely through the endeavours of people like them, generation after generation, that China-Kenya relations have accomplished the remarkable achievements that we witness today.
Kenya, hailed as the ‘cradle of mankind’, is one of the important birthplaces of the human race. Kenya boasts rich and vibrant tribal cultures, magnificent landscapes as well as abundant wildlife.
The unique Kenyan culture, the vast Great Rift Valley, the scattered lakes dotting the landscape, the tropical savannahs full of vitality as well as the annual Great Migration hold great appeal for tourists from all over the world, including China.
More and more Chinese are traveling to Kenya for tourism, business, and professional opportunities with the upgrading of China-Kenya relations and the ever-deepening of practical cooperation.
According to statistics, China is now Kenya’s 6th largest source country of inbound tourists. Kenya welcomed over 90,000 Chinese visitors in 2024, a record increase of 47.4 per cent over the previous year.
As a diplomat and resident of Nairobi, I have visited the Nairobi National Museum, ridden a bicycle in the Karura Forest and taken a walk at Oloolua Nature Trail on weekends and holidays. I look forward to new encounters to fully experience and appreciate Kenya’s cultural heritage and natural scenery.
China is one of the four great ancient civilisations of the world, and the sole uninterrupted civilisation that has extended from ancient times to the present day.
The profound depth and splendour of the Chinese civilisation are epitomised in the intricate oracle bone scripts, the lyrical beauty of Tang and Song poetry, the colourful masks of Peking Opera, the serene elegance of the traditional Chinese tea ceremony and so on.
China is never short of must-visit tour destinations, from the Three Sacred Mountains and Five Great Peaks to the underground Terracotta Warriors, from the picturesque Guilin to the majestic Great Wall stretching thousands of miles, from the ancient Forbidden City to the modern “Magic City” of Shanghai Bund, which blend and mutually enhance the beauty of natural scenery and centuries-old cultural landmarks.
As Confucius said, “Isn’t it a pleasure to have friends coming from afar?” Hospitality, a traditional virtue in China since ancient times, runs deep in the DNA of the Chinese people. We are delighted to welcome friends from Kenya and across the world to visit and experience China.
By Guo Haiyan