One of President Xi's focuses of the visit is to promote cultural exchange between China and Egypt.[Special coverage] There is already a growing Egyptian community here in the capital Beijing. Our reporter Tao Yuan spent some time with one student from a small town in Egypt who fought for the opportunity to come to China.
For 27-year-old Hoda, the love for China started with a simple character.
"It was so different from our characters, and it was so different from our writing, and it was so different from our culture. It was so far away from me. It looked so mysterious to me. And I don't know why, I just loved it. And I promised myself one day I'd be able to read something like this," Egyptian student Hoda Alaaeldin Hassan said.
She applied to study Chinese at the Suez Canal University, and was admitted. It was the first year the school had opened a Chinese department.
During college, she participated in a country-wide Chinese language competition, the Chinese Bridge, and won first place. That got her a scholarship to come pursue her master's degree in China.
"You can't study Chinese without coming to China. It's really important to come here, to be in touch with people everyday, to know more about them, to go around China, to see how China is, and to learn more about China's culture. You really need to come."
But no amount of studying in Egypt had prepared her for the China experience.
"Like one day, I was on the Beijing subway, and a little Chinese girl was staring at me. And the little girl was like 'but why is she putting that thing on her head? Where is her hair?'"
Hoda didn't shy away.
"I took her little hands, and then I put it under my scarf so she touched my hair."
Now, Hoda is in her fifth year here, and a PhD student at Beijing Language and Culture University.
"I get to be in touch with people from different countries to learn about their cultures. So actually coming to China, it didn't just help me to improve my knowledge from China. But I knew more about the world, the whole world."
Outside of school, Hoda is eager to take in all aspects of Chinese culture, from calligraphy, to traditional Chinese dancing.
"It was the character that made me choose to learn Chinese, but later, it was everything about China that made me decide to continue."
A decision Hoda says she never regretted.
