Attractive Accra?

As Chinese New Year is fast approaching, tens of thousands of well-doing Chinese will be hitting the road near and far. The Spring Festival is one of the biggest and busiest travel season in China, ranked only next to Golden Week (May Day) and National Day (October First). A year or so ago, the Chinese government suspended the week-long May Day holiday scheme, now the Chunjie holiday period, usually two weeks off for most of people, is increasingly gaining popularity among urban middle-class Chinese.

To appear to the Chinese travelers and attract tourism dollars, Ghana grants visa waives to Chinese tourists and became one of handful countries to do so. The result has been mixed, there are certainly more Chinese tourists walking around capitol Accra streets, usually easily spotted by walking together and uniformly money belts around their waists.

How does Chinese media portrait Ghana to its readers? Here is an article picked by biggest news portal, Sina, which cited a Lonely Planet's Cities You Really Hate ranking. Accra is among the nine unattractive cities in the world for tourists. Ranked second, Accra is only next to Detroit of the U.S. and above Seoul of South Korea.

The article says Accra lacks any beach city charms:
第2名是西非加纳首都阿克拉(Accra)，ugly(丑陋), chaotic(混乱), sprawling(杂乱无序)，毫无海滨城市特色。

Cup of African Nations

The tragical shooting attack to Togo National Football team has shocked the whole competitions at Angola, where the cup of African Nations are being held. Three people died and multiple players were injured at the incident.

The African football fest will be severely tarnished. But the carryon of the games will show that the countries will not fear and crumpled by the incident.

At the first match, Angola and Mali draw to 4-4. Ghana team, aiming to carry a strong momentum to the June World Cup to be held in South Africa, will once again try to shoot for the top goal.

China is ranked same as Ghana in QOL

International Living has unveiled their newest ranking of countries in terms of quality of living. Both China and Ghana were scored at 54. The countries scored the same include Peru, Paula, Cuba, Lebanon, Jordan and Kiribati.

China's score is severely dragged down by the poor scoring of freedom, which is only 8, the only countries scored lower are Cuba, North Korea, Libya, Uzbekistan and Myanmar.

France tops the list with a score of 80 and Somali and Sudan are listed at the bottom with 32 and 34.

Hope for the New Year

New Year Day, 2010.Kokrobite Beach.

Kobrorite is one hour driving from the capital Accra, and the white sanded shore line makes a great weekend getaway for locals and expats alike.

Spending the New Year Day on a beach seems to be an annual celebration here, especially for the young and restless. Kokrobite is packed with 20s and early 30s, we are the definite minority here. Hundreds of young couples, singles and everyone in between played in the with the waves or on the beach with friends. Soccer balls flying around, kids were busy running around.

Even walking vendors selling beads, oranges, pineapples, fish, you-name-it seemed to be having a great day. Three 7 or 8 year old boys carried an aluminum basin of coconuts, which run out before the boys could trun around and got back to us.

One young couple sat by the edge of water, her back lying on his chest. When the waves came ashore and created an whiteout, the water foams surrended them, and they seemed to be floating in an island of bubbles for a second.

Football, the national pastime is the play of the New Year Day. Not only did we drive by a field where a local game was being played (6 hours later when we drove home, the games were still ongoing), the young men were all treat the beach like another street for fatancy football. Within a few months, the World Cup will be held in South Afirca, the first African country to host the games, the footballmania will heat up even more in Ghana.

No one seemed to mention the domestic double digit inflation, the failed terror attack attempted by an African, and many other glooms and dooms in the 2009, and everyone is enjoying the arrival of something new with the hope that the New Year will bring them something better.

Happy New Year!