UNLIKE ITS SISTERS, Shanghai and Beijing, China’s third city doesn’t conjure up the image of an iconic skyline, the Great Wall of China or the Forbidden City; but it does have beautiful architecture, and excellent food that’s famous worldwide. Chinese chefs, many hailing from Guangzhou, were the first modern Chinese to travel around the world.

FLYING DUE east from Nairobi to the Seychelles islands, my imagination is filled with vibrant Technicolor images of exotic nature and landscapes, and luxurious resorts overlooking some of the world’s finest palm-fringed beaches. What surprises me, however, is that the most colourful spot of all stands in the heart of the capital, Victoria, as a monument to the diversity of history and culture that has passed through the islands of this very young and tiny country.

IT’S EARLY MORNING. As sunlight glitters across the glass façades that puncture the sky from downtown, a light breeze strokes the city streets before disappearing into a wide blue sky that opens onto the Great Rift Valley and Maasai Mara. Nairobi is a city in its element, snug in its multi-cultural complexity and teeming with the sort of treasures many only associate with the better-known urban meccas like Dubai, Tokyo and New York. (Full article in print-only mSafari (Kenya Airways)