Two friends stroll through the streets of Soweto

No trip to South Africa would be complete without a visit to Soweto.

Tourist trips to one of the largest urban sprawls in the world are now run by several companies out of Johannesburg.

This gigantic suburb of Johannesburg is named from SOuth WEst TOwnship, and is a vast black township that houses most of the black population that works in Johannesburg.

It is a city of an estimated 3.5 million inhabitants which has no high-rises, no downtown area and no luxurious shopping malls. Huge mansions sit across the road from tin shanties. There are green fields and streams around the corner from piles of garbage.

Soweto has the biggest public hospital in the world with the world's highest HIV infection rate and a friendliness that belies a high unemployment rate. It is also the one-time home of two of the heroes of the anti-apartheid movement - Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu.