XAUAT News Network: Zhang Xiaohui, Vice President of Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology (XAUAT), led a delegation for an exchange visit on November 21 to Egypt's Ain Shams University (ASU), a member of the SRIAATU. They met with ASU President Mohamed Diaa Zain El-Abedeen and Vice President Ghada Farouk. Li Mingyuan, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shaanxi Committee and Director of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Shaanxi Committee attended the meeting, as the event serves as one of the celebrations marking the tenth anniversary of the "Belt and Road" Initiative and the 15th anniversary of the friendly relations between China's Shaanxi Province and Egypt's Cairo Governorate. Present at the event were heads and representatives from the Office of International Affairs and College of Arts of XAUAT, as well as ASU Faculty of Engineering, Confucius Institute, Faculty of Al-Alsun, and International Relation Office.

Mohamed Diaa Zain El-Abedeen extended a warm welcome to the delegations of the Shaanxi government and XAUAT. He said, Egypt and China as ancient civilizations started their friendly cooperation in the 1960s and should expand and deepen cooperation constantly in the future. ASU, he added, has established solid cooperative relations in science and education with multiple Chinese universities, and looks forward to practical cooperation with XAUAT in mutual visits between staff and students, joint scientific research, and others under the framework of the SRIAATU.

Zhang Xiaohui thanked Mohamed Diaa Zain El-Abedeen for his warm hospitality, saying that ASU as one of the most famous universities in Egypt has made important contributions to the country's social development. He said XAUAT joined the delegation of the Shaanxi government in the visit to promote communication and dialogues in higher education and strengthen exchanges and cooperation between the two universities based on the friendly cooperation between Shaanxi Province and Cairo Governorate. ASU is the first foreign university XAUAT has visited since the founding of the SRIAATU, Zhang said, adding that the visit in a face-to-face manner has deepened understanding and mutual trust between the two sides and unfolded more cooperation potentials and opportunities, which is highly conducive to the two sides' future mutual learning, complementarity of each other's advantages and deepening of their practical cooperation. He expected to work with ASU and make the SRIAATU an all-benefiting platform featuring innovation cooperation and people-to-people exchanges as well as one that promotes collaboration among industry, education, research, and application.

During the visit, Zhang and his delegation met with Omar Al-Husseini, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Nasser Abdel-Aal, Director of the Confucius Institute, Salwa Rashad, Dean of the Faculty of Al-Alsun, and professors from the departments of Architecture Engineering and Urban Planning. They had a thorough and detailed discussion on cooperation in such fields as joint training of students, the introduction of courses, scientific research projects, and China-Egypt cultural exchanges.

During the visit, the XAUAT delegation toured ASU's Faculty of Engineering, Confucius Institute, and Luban Workshop. Prof. Ren Yunying and Prof. Li Xiaolong were invited to participate in the "Sino-Egyptian Dialogue on Famous Historical and Cultural Cities" and make keynote speeches.