Li found the Aleppo handmade soap during a 2000 trip to Syria, and has since been its fan. An experience of buying fakes in 2015 prompted him to import the authentic from its home for online sale.
From Tianjin's Haihe River to the Bohai Sea, down to the East China Sea, the South China Sea, and via the Strait of Malacca, further to the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and to Latakia by Mediterranean, stretches a route of the ancient maritime Silk Road.
Soap orders from China have kept the Anis brothers from fleeing home.
A LANGUAGE FOR CHANGE
Life took a drastic turn when a serious disease hit Chamraeun Sreytouch and forced the top student out of middle school for five years. It also deprived her family of an economic well-being.
However, life changed when she took her father's advice to study at a Chinese language elementary school in the countryside of her hometown Kandal Province. She was not fully recovered but felt heavily obligated to make money to support the family. Many Chinese people have come over to open factories, and doing translation work for them would be a decent job, her elderly father said.
Life again changed from that point on. Learning Chinese was fun and brought hope to the young Khmer lady. She was led to further study at the well-known Duan Hua (Toun Fa) Chinese School based in the capital Phnom Penh, and later at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
Because of her academic excellence, she was given the opportunity to complete her last two years of college studying at Dali University in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Chamraeun then had an idea. Why not to help more Cambodians learn Chinese to improve their chances at a better life? After graduation, she opened the Pei De Chinese Language School in her hometown. With a desire to continue learning herself, the headmistress is now a student at the Confucius Institute in Phnom Penh with an aim of going to China for graduate studies.
She could have ended up either working in a factory or a restaurant, she says. Instead, she's one of more than 5 million registered students at more than 1,500 Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in 140 countries around the world.
KUVATOV'S SHIFT TO PEN WITH YET SWORD
For Timur Katayamovich Kuvatov, practicing two hours of Chinese Kung Fu has long been a daily routine as well as providing stress relief from his work as president and editor-in-chief of the Kazakhstan Today news agency.
But he isn't known for his work at the agency. Instead, he's made a name for himself winning medals in martial arts competitions in Kazakhstan, Asia and world, and as chief coach of the national martial arts team.
Kuvatov made a career shift amid the economic aftermath of Kazak independence from Soviet Union. He quickly rose through the ranks of the news business. But for Kuvatov, the practice of Kung Fu proved to be his real passion, and he longed to advance his skills.
In his late 40s, Kuvatov decided to begin learning Chinese in order to better understand China's culture and the roots of Kung Fu. "Kung Fu is not only a sport, but also a philosophy," he says.
In recent years, Kuvatov has witnessed more of his friends travelling to China and more Chinese travellers and enterprises coming to Kazakhstan. He believes China's Belt and Road Initiative, of which Kazakhstan is a participant, will lead to increased bilateral cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
He also notices that a Kung Fu trend is gaining ground among young Kazaks, something Kuvatov is very happy to see.
