a. 200

b. about 20,000

c. 10,000

d. hundreds of thousands

2 What do Africans do on the mainland?

a. work as miners

b. work as domestic helpers

c. buy Chinese goods to sell in their home countries

d. sell goods from their home countries to the Chinese

3 What caused a sharp increase in trade between the mainland and African countries?

a. the Beijing Olympics

b. China's tightening of controls over Africans

c. the financial crisis

d. China's entry to the World Trade Organisation

4 What is the biggest inconvenience faced by Africans in Guangzhou?

a. taxi drivers often argue with them over 1 or 2 yuan

b. it is hard to communicate with their families back home

c. they are required to have their passports with them at all times

d. robbers often target Africans

Think about

1 What would you do if you saw an argument between a local resident and a foreigner who doesn't speak Chinese?

2 Should Guangzhou relax its restrictions on African visitors, given the increasing number of people coming from the continent?

3 What can Guangzhou residents and Africans in the city do to enhance understanding of each other?

4 What do you think of the comments made by the taxi driver on Africans?

5 If you were an immigration official, what would you do to deal with an expected rise in foreign residents?

Follow-up activities

1 Do you know where Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea are? Look them up on a world map. Do a search online and learn about their history, language and customs.

2 Hong Kong has a large population of Africans, including long-term residents and visitors. Check out figures from the Census and Statistics Department, the Immigration Department and the Tourism Board to see if there has been any significant change in their numbers in recent years.

Answers:

December 3

Reading comprehension: 1. c, 2. b, 3. d, 4. a