Couple rides rails to romance

Mu Xuqiang and Li Zhiyuan find love in a construction camp on Mombasa-Nairobi Railway project

Railroad construction camps aren't normally considered romantic hotspots, but for Mu Xuqiang and Li Zhiyuan, it was just perfect. They are the first Chinese couple who met and married while working on the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway project. China Road and Bridge Corporation is building the railway. The $3.8 billion project, 90 percent financed by Export-Import Bank of China, is the biggest single infrastructure project in Kenya in the past 50 years.

The novelty of the railway romance has made headlines in the Chinese media. Their wedding photos have also been forwarded thousands of times online, and received a huge number of likes on WeChat, the instant messaging app.

That's not the only unusual aspect of their nuptials. They got married without having met each other's parents, which seldom happens in China, where meeting parents is a must before marriage.

Mu, 23, from Beijing, arrived in Kenya in August, about a month later than his 25-year-old wife, who is from China's northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Before, he had worked in Equatorial Guinea for about two years with China Road and Bridge.

Mu works as a technician and Li is a human resources officer in the project's Section No 8, which is located at Machakos county near Nairobi.

They didn't grow close right away, but a blown lightbulb in Li's room on a rainy evening in October created an opportunity. "I dared not to go to the toilet," she says, "because of the darkness, and I was a little bit worried that the rain might leak (unseen) into my room." Li sent a message to Mu asking if he could help her change the bulb, which she was too short to reach. Even though Li says the two hadn't talked outside of work, he responded.

As to why she sent for Mu, she breaks out laughing and says: "I didn't have anyone else to turn to."

At the time, their colleagues were in the process of moving from their camp northeast of Nairobi to the new camp in Machakos county.

Construction on the new camp was being finished up, and there were only five who remained at the old camp, including Mu and Li. The only others were a couple and one of their leaders, who Li decided not to bother.

It didn't take much time to change the bulb, and Mu left soon after. But the lightbulb wasn't the only thing to flicker to life.

The couple with them at the old camp during a 15-day span, Zhang Biyu and her husband, always had dinner with Mu and Li. They soon noticed the two were chatting more and more over dinner and afterward. "They didn't talk and had no interaction before," Zhang recalls.

"We found we share many similarities," Li says. "When someone says something, it's common to see us give almost the same response. In many occasions, we find both of us speaking with one voice. This even happened before we dated each other."

They also found they both have a special interest in cuisine - not in cooking, but eating. It's a common topic of their conversations. "We talk about almost everything," says Mu, the more taciturn of the two.

"Neither of us tried to push us together. We both just met someone who is suitable, with whom we could get along well. We share many values," Li says.

After everyone moved into the new camp, news about their dating spread quickly among the 120 Chinese workers. "It's impossible to hide it since we all have dinner together," Li says.

In December, they decided to tell their parents about each other, and both were given parental blessings to make their own decision as long as they thought they had found the right person.

Both have been quite independent for some time. Li left home to study at 13, and then entered university in Beijing and continued her studies in the United Kingdom. Mu has been in Africa for about three years.

On April 13, they went to the Chinese embassy in Nairobi to make their marriage legal. "I had no struggle with myself about the decision," says Li. They then held a wedding ceremony at their camp on May 2, with both Chinese and Kenyan colleagues as witnesses.

A simply decorated, makeshift room became their bridal suite, and they went back to work the next day.

"Our parents are very open-minded," Li said. "If not, we are unlikely to have gotten married so soon. When I told my father we were going to go through the legal procedures for marriage at the Chinese embassy in Kenya, he said, 'No problem. Just do as you wish.' After I finished the procedures, I told my father I had done it. He responded with one world, 'Hao', meaning OK in English, with a full stop," recalls Li, laughing at the memory.

Married life in a camp may sound boring and tiring, but for this couple, it's fulfilling.

A regular workday for Mu starts at 6:30 am and ends at 5:30 pm, with an hour and a half break for lunch. His job as a technician involves walking around the camp to inspect the work that has been done.

"Usually I walk for more than 10 or even 20 kilometers a day. When I am tired, I sit on a small rock to rest. There is nowhere else to rest at the construction site," he says. Overtime is common and he has to work overnight for a whole week about once a month.

Mu's work also is challenging. Because Nairobi is five hours behind Beijing, she often works in the evenings to prepare materials needed by her colleagues in Beijing. She says the busiest time is toward the end of the month, as deadlines approach, and sometimes she has to work until 2 am.

They say they manage about two and a half hours together daily and eke out several days off together a month.

When together, they watch movies or American TV series, but that at times is a luxury given their tight schedules. Sometimes they say they're too tired even for that, and seldom do they have time to go shopping together. But Li adds: "Life here is fulfilling."

Mu and Li are among 1,900 Chinese on the project. The number of Kenyans employed is expected to rise from about 10,889 now to about 30,000 as the project progresses.

Though the pair must wait another two months or so to return to China on vacation, they have been making lists of the cuisine they plan to have back home.

They say they have a good system for settling quarrels. "We often quarrel over some small things. But our motto is, if we have conflicts, the earlier we talk it over, the quicker it can be resolved," Li says.

While the project is expected to be finished in 2017, Li says they probably will move on to another project if it suits them well.