Over 10,000 kilometers away from China, there is an African state that enjoys an incredibly close bond with the world's second-biggest economy. In fact, though not particularly big, it has overtaken many other African countries to become the second-largest trading partner of China on the continent. That state, remote yet intimate for China, is Angola.

Since the end of the Angolan civil war in 2002, thousands of Chinese workers have embarked on a journey to the devastated land to join the labor-intensive reconstruction efforts and help the country walk out of the quagmire step by step.

Zhao Ke, a Chinese contractor who has spent almost 10 years in Angola, has accomplished dozens of construction projects in the country, including colleges, hospitals, a residential complex, and infrastructure.