KABUL, Afghanistan — The first thing you see walking out of Kabul's airport is a billboard advertising Chinatown, which, if you visit, turns out to be a plain, off-white trio of 10-story towers in the Afghan capital's Taimani district. On the ground floor are shops selling Chinese products, including lights, office furniture, fans, electric bicycles, kitchen equipment, garden tools, pipe fittings, solar panels, toiletries, clothes, decorations and Clean Laundry detergent, which promises "disintegration of the stain."
Most visitors' first stop is the office of Yu Minghui, the 51-year-old entrepreneur who started Chinatown in 2019 and who doubles as chairman of the China-Afghanistan Trade Committee, a semiofficial liaison office for Yu's passion project: bringing Chinese merchants to Afghanistan.
The office helps them obtain visas, navigate the market and make connections. Those who like their chances can join Chinatown or rent space in Yu's newest undertaking, a sprawling 350-acre, $216 million industrial park on Kabul's northeastern edge — the first infrastructure project signed between a Chinese company and the Taliban government.
