This year marks the 40th anniversary of the People's Republic of China resuming its legitimate seat at the United Nations. At the 26th UN General Assembly in 1971, of the 23 member states who submitted a draft resolution to restore to the PRC all its rights at the organization, 11 were African; and of the 76 votes in favor of it, 26 came from African countries. When the motion was approved, representatives of African countries were so excited they danced in the hall. "It is our African friends that brought us back into the UN," Mao Zedong observed. Chinese gratitude to Africans endures.

To better understand Africa and China's long – standing forms of cooperation with the continent, China International Publishing Group sent a team of journalists - Yan Weijuan from China Today, Wang Bingyi from Chinafrica, Li Zhijian from China.org.cn and Wang Xinling from China Report – to Cameroon, Gabon, Tanzania and South Africa last August. During the trip they interviewed two Chinese ambassadors, visited Chinese businesses, medical workers participating in aid programs, and a Confucius College. Before the tour, they also caught up with the Gabon Ambassador to China in Beijing, and their colleagues at China Today interviewed He Wenping, director of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Young Africans practicing Chinese Kungfu. China Foto Press