Celebrating 100th anniversary of CPC | Burkina Faso youth get a fresh look at China

China was a remote and mysterious country for young people from Burkina Faso before they first visited the country to attend a seminar for young diplomats from Nov 5 to 25, 2019.

The three-week seminar under the China-aided Human Resource Development Cooperation Program dramatically changed their perception of China, which they had previously learned about from books and media reports. They said their first and most profound impression about China is that it is not a dictatorship as claimed by some Western media.

Disan, one of the attentees at the seminar, left a letter talking about her perception of China after the session.

She said in the letter that after spending three weeks in China, she can say that China is very different from what she had imagined, and that she had expected to see a more traditional country with many old-fashioned villages.

She visited three cities during her stay in China, namely Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, where she said the transportation is very well developed, with a huge transportation network backed by road, railway and airline services, and industrialization has become a reality in China, ranging from cosmetics and food to automobiles and electronics.

Despite its modernization drive, China has preserved its splendid and long history at spectacular relics such as the Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and many gardens, Disan said.

She said her overall impression of China can be summed up in three words: amazement, wonder and admiration.

The work that the Chinese people have quietly done to reach this level of development in less than half a century is simply commendable. There is no doubt that this example provides inspiration for all African countries, particularly Burkina Faso, Disan wrote.