Chinese-Egyptian Culture Year wraps up with great achievements

Activities held during the 2016 Chinese-Egyptian Culture Year have made Egyptians know more about China, not only as an economic power, but also a cultural power.[Photo/Xinhua]

She added that new media, such as social networks, are being used in broadcasting information of cultural activities and as a tool to talk to internet users in Egypt.

Chen also revealed that over 90 cultural events were held during the culture year in Egypt, a prominent rise compared to the average number of Chinese activities held in Egypt in the past years, which stood at about dozens.

Regarding the Egyptians events in China, Chen said the Egyptian government sent many cultural delegations to present the Egyptian art and culture to the Chinese people.

"The Egyptian culture was warmly welcomed by Chinese people, especially those new and modern style Egyptian shows," Chen said.

In addition to the mutual exchange of culture and art, the culture year also focused on cooperation in various fields such as tourism, sports, cinema, heritage and even archaeology.

In a recent interview, Egyptian minister of antiquities Khaled al-Anany told Xinhua that Chinese archaeologists are very interested in starting excavations in his archaeologically rich country.

Al-Anany, who paid an official visit to China last month, said Egyptian and Shanghai museums signed a Memory of Understanding on cultural cooperation earlier this year, adding that an Egyptian delegation from his ministry is flying to China soon to discuss mutual cooperation with their Chinese counterparts.

In another interview, director of Egypt's National Center for Translation (NCT) Anwar Moghith said the culture year is a great chance to know more about Chinese culture, describing it as "a gate to the Chinese culture."

The official said the NTC recently translated 20 books from Chinese into Arabic, and another 20 Chinese books from European languages into Arabic.