Johannesburg, southern Africa’s financial and economic powerhouse, is a place of spectacular beauty, cultural diversity, stark contrasts and contradictions.

It reflects the rainbow nation as a place of amazing wildlife and abundant gold and diamonds, of a privileged elite and struggling black population. Of course, there’s the troubled history of apartheid that South Africa is coming to terms with.

The city of 950,000 residents (metropolitan population 4.5 million) is also where the late Nelson Mandela launched his anti-apartheid struggle and where South Africa’s first black president departed the world last month.

Shanghai Daily takes you on a tour of an animal park, glamor, gold and poverty.

Mandela’s neighborhood

In Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela’s influence can be felt everywhere. Outside one of his residences in the Santon district, purple petals of a jakaranda tree were scattered about. Colorful painted pebbles spell out a message of love in front of his house.

The leafy district is one of the richest and safest in Johannesburg, though crime is a problem elsewhere. Fifteen minutes from downtown, the exclusive neighborhood is filled with European-style villas, small shaded lanes and gardens.

The boutique Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa, is where Mandela, after his release from prison in 1990, completed his renowned work “The Long Walk to Freedom.”

It features a permanent exhibition about Mandela’s life, including his manuscripts, portraits and rare photos of him over the years with world leaders and influential people.

Johannesburg is known as South Africa’s capital of art, and the hotel features a permanent collection of art for which it is famous. It includes 45 sculptures and more than 250 original works by more than 10 South African artists, from big names to up-and-coming artists. They all express Africa and much of it is subtle and abstract.

At the entrance of hotel, a black “Crouching Angel” welcomes guests; two large etchings by Dirk Meerkotter depict stylized voters standing in line for South Africa’s first free and fair elections in 1994.

Curator Ian Coetser said, “We strive to educate the viewers by exposing them, through the art, to new ways of looking and seeing ... new ways of experiencing Africa — its landscape, its colors, its fauna and flora, its cultures, its mythology, its history and its future.”

Apartheid Museum

The museum is dedicated to Nelson Mandela and others who struggled against apartheid to overcome discrimination and prejudice.

Johannesburg was a city with clear divisions between black and white, and visitors to the museum experience that stark divide.

At the entrance is a bench marked “Whites only.” Thus visitors begin a journey through the rise and fall of apartheid, from a notorious nation of state-sanctioned racial discrimination to the rainbow nation that strives to achieve tolerance.

The museum is a superb example of design, space and landscape reflecting the South African experience.

It features 22 exhibition areas developed by a multi-disciplinary team of curators, filmmakers, historians and designers. It shows the world how South Africa is coming to terms with its oppressive past and working toward a future for all South Africans.

Leaving the museum, visitors see a tall, geometric monument to freedom pointing to the sky. Mandela’s words come to mind: “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

Safari

No visit to Johannesburg could be complete without a safari in one of the city’s safari reserves. Visitors feel the grandeur of the wild, the danger and the history of heroic tales.

The city has many big national parks for safaris, as well as private game reserves.

Luke Street was our guide in the Shambala Private Game Reserve in the central Waterberg mountain range, which has a temperate, subtropical climate for most of the year. Shambala is the Tibetan word for “paradise on earth.” The reserve is a three-hour drive from central Johannesburg.

Safari was an amazing experience. When we entered the park, we were greeted by several giraffes foraging for food in the bushes, and herds of antelope and zebra. We were very lucky because on the second day we encountered lions, which was very exciting. Street has lived at the reserve camp for two years and inspects the area daily. He told us it had been a month since he saw a lion.

We experienced the majesty of nature and the harmonious existence of all the animals. Though it seems peaceful, danger lurks every day because of poachers trying to kill rhinos. They are killed for their horns, which are used in traditional Eastern medicine.

South Africa is home to around 20,000 rhinos, around 80 percent of the world’s total. “But nowadays, it becomes more and more difficult to see the animals due to the escalating poaching,” Street told us as we sat in an open vehicle on the vast pasture.

In the near distance, a cluster of rhinos was resting under a tree, far away a mother and her calf were grazing for food. The calf noticed us and stared. The mother raised her head with its sharp horn and led the calf into the bush.

In the vast African bush, the sun is bright, the sky is blue with white clouds and the winter wind blows over the mountains. It’s silent; we could only hear the wind and our own breathing.

Two small bat-eared foxes ran fast in front of us, bushbuck antelope leaped in the distance, rhinos rested peacefully under the tree, while a big ostrich and wild boar stood to our side.

Our guide taught us a lot during our three-day safari. He became somber.

“There are people who would pay thousands of dollars to kill a lion here in Africa, which is very sad. Maybe in the future, our children will only be able to see animals in the zoo,” he said.

“I would be more than happy if guys like you would take back the message that the lovely creatures of nature do not deserve poaching and smuggling because humans want their horns and tusks,” he said.

“Here in mother nature, everything lives in a natural way, and we humans should respect that.”

His feeling touched all of us.

At sunset on the day before, we saw two male lions napping under a tree on the riverbank. We were only a few meters away as we saw the kings of the beasts lift their heads and spot half-submerged hippos in the water. The lions roared. The hippos bellowed.

We were watching a primal scene.

Our guide drove us back to Zulu Camp, which is crossed by streams from the nearby river in the bushveld.

As we gathered around big campfire under a starry sky, he raised his glass and said, “We hope more and more people will cherish this vast wonderland and all the animals that live in it.”

Our camp was modern and well-equipped. After long days in the bush, we could return to a warm bath and comfortable bed. Outside we heard the chorus of millions of insects and frogs. At 4am, we were awakened by a lion’s roar, an unbelievable experience. From early morning until dusk, the air was filled with echoing birdcalls.

A day in Soweto

Soweto in southwest Johannesburg is South Africa’s biggest black neighborhood, created for blacks who worked in nearby gold mines. So-we-to stands for Southwestern Townships. Some say that the name represents “So Where To?”

In the days of aparthied, Soweto was regarded as a labor warehouse, but after the establishment of new South Africa, the area grew rapidly into a vigorous town.

It still reflects the nation’a side gap between a rising black middle class and a black lower class.

Today it is also a place of wealth with a line between haves (mostly newly rich blacks) and have-nots. Many blacks struggle with everyday life, but some residents drive luxury sedans. On the outskirts of Soweto there are many colorful villas in red, pink, green and creamy yellow.

In Diepkloof, called the Beverly Hills in Soweto, there are even more luxury villas with BMWs and Proches parked in front. The owners are successful businessmen and other new rich. Winnie Mandela lives in the area.

Soweto was a collection of townships created to group black Africans according to independent homelands. The area made headlines on June 16, 1976, with the Soweto Uprising in which mass protests erupted over government policy to enforce education in Afrikaans, spoken by whites and considered the language of oppressors, rather than English, which was commonly spoken by blacks and anti-apartheid activists.

Soweto became a hotbed of activism.

Vilakazi Street is the only street in the world where two Nobel Laureates have lived, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Landmarks include the Hector Pieterson Museum, Nelson Mandela National Museum, Mandela House, Tutu House, Regina Mundi Catholic Church and Freedom Towers.

Gold Reef City

Johannesburg is the world’s biggest gold producer and the Gold Reef City amusement park on an old gold mine tells its story. In fact, the area in the Witwatersrand Mountains contained reefs of gold.

Legend has it that a white man named George Harrison was walking on a farm one day in 1886 and stumbled on a rock that was made of gold. Another legend has it that in 1886 a child picked up a pebble later found to contain a 21.25-carat diamond.

That started a gold rush and changed the region forever. Hundreds of thousands of prospectors, miners and people of all kinds poured in.

Johannesburg was established in 1928.

At Gold Reef City, park staff wear period costumes of the 1880s and the architecture is in period style. A museum covers the history of gold mining and features a mine shaft. Visitors can tour underground tunnels in a tram and see how gold is produced and poured into barrels.

The deepest mine is 3,000 meters and was operating until 1977 when the gold was played out.

Tips:

The flight from Shanghai to Johannesburg takes 16-22 hours.

Safety is the No. 1 concern when traveling in Johannesburg. Stay in a group to avoid pickpockets and thieves on the street. Hold onto your bags. Areas such as Sandton are safe if you want to wander around.

If you want to buy gold and diamonds, big shopping mall are recommended because of the price and quality. After purchasing, place items where they cannot be seen, especially luxury brands.

On safari, remember to drink water frequently to avoid dehydration.  Hats and sunscreen are essential.

When you see animals, don’t make any noise or sudden movement lest you frighten them. They are very cautious — just watch. Do not use a flash.