As African leaders attend this week's summit in Beijing awash with investment pledges, back in Malawi, pupils are stuck into their Mandarin lessons -- a clear sign of China's increasing sway over the continent.
"The world now is going in such a way that if you want to travel, (you) should not want to find difficulties talking to people. Language can be a barrier," said Ndaziona Mponde, a Malawian student studying Mandarin in the capital Lilongwe.
"I want to learn Chinese because if I get a chance of going to China maybe for business or for school then I wouldn't find too many problems," she told AFP. Malawi and China have had diplomatic relations only since 2008.
But more than 1,000 Malawians now attend Chinese classes at 25 learning centres in four cities across Malawi, according to professor Feng Jianguo, director of the Confucius Institute in Lilongwe.
"We have a lot of Chinese enterprises offering opportunity of employment," Jianguo said.
"If you know how to speak, how to read and write and you learn the Chinese language, it will be much easier for you to find a job."
"When you thought of going for further studies, the ideal choice was the UK or USA. But now, China has opened up."