In the hall of the Yiwu International Trade Service Center, 39-year-old Senegalese businessman Tirera Sourakhata smiles as he proudly shows a small card he received in July. Thanks to this blue card, he and his family are now entitled to social security benefits such as basic pension and education.

"All my children are studying in Yiwu," Sourakhata told ChinAfrica, "I have been here for 13 years. Yiwu is a welcoming city for foreigners. It's my second home."

Sourakhata, along with 14 other foreign businessmen, are part of the first batch of foreigners to be granted this card - the foreign merchant card - by the local government of Yiwu, a city in east China's Zhejiang Province.

A bold decision 

Business runs in the blood of Sourakhata's family. His father and brothers are all engaged in business in Senegal, and he easily could have joined them after graduation as planned. But instead, Sourakhata made a bold decision to seek business opportunities in a remote country: China. "I know that China can provide me with better business oppotunities," he said.

He first arrived in south China's metropolis Guangzhou in 2001, where he began purchasing clothing and shipping it back home to Senegal. In 2003, opportunities in hardware products caught his attention. On the advice of a friend, he left Guangzhou for Yiwu.

"The hardware products in Yiwu have similar quality as those from Dubai or Hong Kong, but they are in much lower price," said Sourakhata. Soon he opened his own hardware shop in Dakar, capital city of Senegal, and rented an apartment in Yiwu. This is how he started a life of commuting that lasted five years - every 45 days, he traveled to Yiwu, returning each time with two to three containers filled with various kinds of products.

In 2007, Sourakhata decided to move permanently to Yiwu, where he set up an office. Before long he began to receive purchasing orders from Senegalese businessmen who were interested in Yiwu products, but had little knowledge of the city. After gaining trust of a few clients, Sourakhata's popularity in the business community spread quickly by word of mouth.

Since then, in addition to his own business, Sourakhata also purchased over 1,000 different kinds of small commodities such as tableware, accessories and toys for his African clients in Senegal, Republic of the Congo and Gabon. In 2012, Sourakhata established Yiwu Crestone Trading Co., Ltd., which has grown to include now 30 Chinese and African employees, shipping between 100 and 200 containers to Africa each month.

Meanwhile, Sourakhata also expanded his activities to introducing African products into the Chinese market. "Senegal's food, flowers and logs are very popular in China," he said. "Now I am planning to establish an import business to bring more Senegalese products to Chinese customers."

Mediating disputes 

When local authorities in Yiwu decided to call on foreigners to play a role in the mediation of business disputes among businesspeople there, Sourakhata was appointed as a mediator - a position of great value to him.

"When a foreign businessman enters the mediation office looking for help and sees that the mediator is also a foreigner, a relationship of trust can immediately be established," Sourakhata said in an interview with CCTV. "He feels more comfortable to tell me about his point of view and the problems he encountered."

When putting on the hat of the mediator, justice becomes Sourakhata's one and only principle. While some foreign businessmen believed Sourakhata would always take sides with the foreigners, the outcomes often surprised them - as well as their Chinese counterparts.

Over three years, Sourakhata has helped resolve more than 30 business disputes involving a total amount of 2.35 million yuan ($350,000), with a success rate of 90 percent. As a result of his special contribution to social public security, Sourakhata was honored as the model individual in social order maintenance by the provincial authorities in May 2016.

Giving back 

Being grateful for all the help and opportunities he received in China, Sourakhata has been trying in return to help Chinese entrepreneurs seeking to expand in Africa. "I had the chance to meet Senegalese President Macky Sall when he visited China in 2014, and he asked me to become a bridge for China-African friendship," he said proudly.

In February 2015, he organized the first Chinese Investors Forum in Senegal, which was attended by the Chinese Ambassador to Senegal, the Senegalese Minister of Professional Training, Learning and Crafts, as well as by a delegation from Yiwu City and representatives from both Chinese and Senegalese private enterprises.

Sourakhata said that the aim of the forum is to help Chinese businessmen better integrate into Senegal by understanding the local investment environment and preferential policies. Meanwhile, he also hoped that Chinese businesspeople's success in Senegal would bring benefits to local people through job creation - a win-win situation, Sourakhata explained.

"The forum provides opportunities and a platform to Chinese businesspeople in Senegal, just as Yiwu did for me," he said. "Efforts have been made on the part of governments. Now I want to promote people-to-people exchanges." Sourakhata said he hopes the forum will be his own way to give back to Yiwu, a city which has given him so much since his first visit in 2003.

Since the first Africans came to Yiwu to buy and export low-price Chinese products in the late 1990s, the city has become a major destination for African businesspeople. Today, there are an estimated 3,000 Africans living and working in Yiwu.

"When I saw the wisdom and diligence of Yiwu businesspeople, I decided to stay there. Today I feel this was the right decision," said Sourakhata during an interview with African media in April 2016.