The Oubangui (Ubangi) River at Zinga forms the border between the Central African Republic on the north bank and the Democratic Republic of Congo on the south. At this point the river is wide, green, and slow-moving, and the far bank is jungle — a landscape that has changed little in centuries. Fishing pirogues move quietly on the water at dawn and dusk; the river is the source of most of the town's protein and much of its commerce.
The river journey between Bangui and the south, of which Zinga is one stop, provides some of the most authentic experience of Central African riverside life available to travellers. The town's relationship with the river — for food, transport, trade with the DRC across the water, and daily bathing — is total. For visitors arriving by boat, the stretch of river approaching and leaving Zinga gives a sense of the scale and character of the Congolese basin's waterway system.