Oshikango is a Namibian town on the border to Angola, 750 kilometers north of Windhoek. Over the last ten years, it has rapidly developed from a tiny cluster of shebeens around an open market into a thriving trade boom town of around 5.000-8.000 inhabitants. This growth is due to the fact that here, the main North-South road meets the border to Angola, combining transport infrastructure and market opportunities. For the shop owners, Oshikango is the best place to profit from Angolan demand without investing in Angola; for Angolan wholesale traders, buying in Namibia offers better prices and, very often, the possibility to avoid Angolan import duties and taxes. Among the many businesspeople trying to profit from Oshikango's advantages are a large number of Chinese. When I first came to Oshikango in 2004, I counted 24 Chinese owned shops; by late 2006, this number had increased to over 70, with around 30 new ones in construction in early 2008. This astonishing increase is mainly due to the investments of a few Chinese businesspeople who built large warehouse complexes, which they are renting out to shop owners. Each of these complexes houses around 30 shops.