Kinshasa

Sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest city, Kin (as locals universally call it) sprawls seemingly forever from the banks of the Congo River to its distant shanty towns. Shot through with chaos, music and a lust for life that is as infectious as it is overwhelming, Kinshasa is a city you experience rather than visit, but there's no better place for a whirlwind introduction to Congolese life. Everything in Kinshasa is bigger, faster and louder than you'll experience anywhere else in Central Africa.