Mira Pages, a Nigerian beauty parlor and salon, is among a growing number of African businesses establishing themselves in the Chinese capital.
Attracted by the city’s dynamism and potential, Beijing has welcomed numerous foreign-funded small businesses in recent years.
The town has been home to shopkeeper Akinade Iyanuo-Luwa Dolapo for a decade.
“I first came to China in 2011. Actually, I came to China through marriage. My husband works in China. We got married and I had to move. He works in Beijing, so I had to come to Beijing,” Dolapo said in a recent interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) at her workplace.
Dolapos Salon caters to the hairdressing needs of the city’s large African population as well as people of all other backgrounds.
“We have a dreadlocks line. We also have stuff for dreadlocks. We have a serum. We have a deep conditioning conditioner. We also have a protein line. We have (something) for everything and there’s more coming,” Dolapo said.
“We have Chinese clients, we have white clients, we have black clients. Let’s just say all races. So in our salon, we serve all races, we serve all hair textures. We serve Chinese, we serve white, even if you’re Latino – all hair textures,” she added.
For Dolapo, Beijing is a vibrant cosmopolitan city that welcomes people from all over the world.
“We thank Beijing for giving foreigners the opportunity to develop and promote our talents,” she said.
The Chinese capital has introduced further measures to make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to set up a business, including simplifying the procedures for obtaining a business license for foreigners.
Dolapo said she sees a promising future for her business in Beijing thanks to political support and the favorable environment.
Nigerian hair salon flourishes in Beijing
On Sunday, heavy to torrential rains began to hit northern China, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Inner Mongolia, with some areas recording rainfall totals of over 100 millimeters.
Heavy rainfall occurred across much of Shanxi Province. A total of 1,858 of 1,978 precipitation observation stations in the province recorded rainfall, with the highest rainfall reaching 140 millimeters. The province issued a yellow rain warning at 9 p.m. on Sunday.
It also rained heavily in Beijing. From 5 p.m. on Sunday to 10 a.m. on Monday, the average rainfall in the Chinese capital was 59.8 millimeters. During the same period, certain areas of the Chaoyang, Haidian, Tongzhou, Shunyi and Mentougou districts even recorded more than 100 millimeters of rain.
“This wave of rainfall in the northern region has a relatively wide-ranging impact, extending from the eastern part of northwest China to the North China Plain and the Yellow River and Huaihe River basins. Another feature is the rapid movement of this weather system, with most areas affected for about a day. The third feature is the significant amount of rainfall in some areas, along with short-term intense rains,” said Chen Tao, chief forecaster of the National Meteorological Center.
Due to heavy rainfall since Monday morning, the blue storm warning in Tianjin has been upgraded to yellow.
Two relevant agencies have activated Level IV emergency measures to control flooding in the Haihe River, the Haihe River Water Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources said.
China has a four-tier emergency response system for flood control, with Tier I being the most urgent response.
Heavy rains shake northern China
