Just a few minutes after noon, sitting on my desk trying to go through stories from upcountry reporters, one of my colleagues, approached me ---Majaliwa, “DME (Deputy Managing Editor) wants to talk with you”.

That was in December 2017, the DME was in Kigali, Rwanda, an East African nation, for a working tour. Before I gave her a whatsApp call, I went through the whole newspaper for that day --to see if everything was fine.

After satisfying myself that everything was in order, I contacted the boss, “Yes mama, I’m here, listening....” aah, son.....OK, can you postpone studies for a year.  Is it possible? She asked me.

But why, what’s up? At that time I was pursuing my Master of Arts in Mass Communication in one of the Universities based in the Tanzania’s Commercial Capital, Dar es Salaam.

She told me that “I want you to participate in a ten-month media training programme in Beijing, China slated for between February and December 2018, send me your CV right now I’m going to forward them to the embassy.”

I started picturing exactly what China is. The world’s most populous nation---there must be a stampede there! A country of Kung fu---people must be so aggressive and ready for a fight anytime! One of the world’s leading tech powerhouse --oh come on! Electronic gadgets at a throwaway price.

All the above did not convince me, but after a while, what popped in my mind was that China is one of the early civilizations with a rich history and culture, and also a fast growing to becoming an economic powerhouse in the world.

This made me believe that the East Asian nation was a land of opportunity and I thought being in China would give me the chance to learn more about the country.

On February 24, 2018, I landed safely in Beijing, China, the country which I always wanted to see. Since I was young, I wanted to see how it is happening here. It is no exaggeration that this is a trip of a lifetime.

In my past five months here, I have visited quite a few locations throughout Beijing and saw some amazing things.

I took notes along the trip so I could report on what I saw and experienced but only to find out that everything here is worth reporting . Beijing itself is a story to tell.

From the Great Wall to the museum palace to the many temples and squares, teahouses and the human accomplishments are outstandingly inspiring.

Eating style is what has left me mouth wide open--breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all eaten with chopsticks. Unluckily I’m not  pretty good with chopsticks!

Christopher Oswero contribute to the article. The ideas expressed are the author's alone, and do not represent the position of our website.