Chinese President Xi Jinping touched down in Senegal on Saturday for the first leg of his tour of sub-Saharan Africa that will also see him visit Rwanda, South Africa and Mauritius. The Senegal visit marks President Xi’s first ever trip to a west African nation, and he is the first Chinese head of state to visit Senegal in nine years, according to China Xinhua News. Having eclipsed the US as Africa’s largest trading partner more than a decade ago, bilateral trade reached a record breaking $220 billion in 2014, according to official statistics.