BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- In the office of Wisdom House in Cario, a number of Chinese books in Arabic version formed a road to Chinese civilization. The designer of this road is the 37-year-old Egyptian young man called Ahmed Al-Saeed.
After graduating from the Chinese Department of Al-Azhar University in 2001, Saeed had been thinking about how to connect the Chinese and Arab people with the language he has mastered. When the classmates were busy with business or tour guiding, Saeed established Egypt-China Wisdom House Culture Company together with his Chinese friends 8 years ago.
Since its establishment in 2011, Wisdom House has been focusing on publishing China-related cultural and literary books in Arabic to enhance Sino-Arab cultural exchange.
"Arabs knew little about China before. Now there's information about China everywhere in Egypt, including Chinese enterprises, Chinese investment, Chinese tourist, so Arabian people desire to learn about China. There's no better way than books to help people learn more about another country or another nation. Our sales volume has been growing since early 2017. "
During the past eight years, Wisdom House has developed to a company with four subsidiaries and hundreds of employees from a small company with only three partners. In addition to the translation and publication of books and audiovisual products, it also produces new products like online translator and Arabic e-book library, and undertakes communication projects between China and Arab countries.
Saeed believes that the huge development of Wisdom House is an epitome of Belt and Road, and its achievements should owe to the opportunities brought by Belt and Road.
"In early 2015, We realized that what we were doing consisted with Belt and Road. Our company's development has tied tightly with Belt and Road during the past 6 years. Our work follows the direction of Belt and Road."
Nowadays Wisdom House occupies 90 percent of the market share of Arabic versions of Chinese books. In August 2015, Saeed was awarded the 9th China Book Special Contribution Award and Youth Achievement Award.
He thinks that there are broad prospects for cooperation between the two ancient civilizations in terms of cultural exchanges, trade, energy and infrastructure. He hopes that he can contribute to cultural communication between these two countries through the Wisdom House.
According to Saeed, "now Egyptians are familiar with Chinese writers like Mo Yan, Su Tong, Liu Zhenyun, Jidi Majia, Chi Zijian, Tie Ning. Egyptians all know these names, so Chinese literature has begun to be popular here."
Saeed owes much of his success to the broadening opportunities brought about by the Belt and Road Initiative.
