Traveler’s Reflections | When Beliefs Align, Even the Desert Can Bloom.

Source: People's Daily

Author | Huang Peizhao

Standing atop the landmark tower in the Central Business District of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, a brisk wind sweeps across your face. The howling sound of the wind seems to echo the endless flow of time itself, rushing past your ears. Before you, a modern city gradually lights up under the night sky: its lights shimmer and twinkle along streets and buildings, resembling brilliant gems embedded in a dark celestial canopy. Broad avenues, newly planted trees, and towering skyscrapers—all come together to paint a vivid picture of a city brimming with strength and hope.
Gazing at this modern city in the distance, my thoughts are drawn back to a not-so-distant past—this land, now dotted with towering skyscrapers and glowing with lights, was once an endless expanse of barren desert and rocky wasteland.

I still remember the first time I set foot here—scorching sunlight blazed down on the earth, and sweltering heat carried waves of yellow sand straight into my face. I drove through the vast, desolate wilderness, trying to find the construction site that hadn’t yet taken shape, only to discover that my navigation system was utterly useless. There were no coordinates, no road signs; all around me stretched an empty expanse where land and sky seemed to merge into one. It was a feeling of being temporarily forgotten by the world—a sense not just of geographical disorientation, but also of profound psychological bewilderment. Who could have imagined that it would be precisely on this barren stretch of land that Africa’s tallest building would rise?

Today, atop this 385.8-meter-tall skyscraper, steel and glass gleam in the night, like a time marker driven into the desert—a stark demarcation between past and future. The tower’s slender, restrained silhouette draws inspiration from the obelisks of ancient Egyptian civilization—their most symbolic form, piercing the vast expanse and reaching toward the heavens. The streamlined glass façade subtly curves in the interplay of light and shadow, evoking the feathers of Ra, the ancient Egyptian sun god, gently unfurling in the breeze. Embedded within the modern concrete and steel structure are timeless cultural symbols, as history and the future engage in a dialogue side by side here.

The beauty of architecture also lies in the myriad invisible yet critically important technical details. The desert’s geology is loose and complex, with winds and sand constantly on the move, and summer temperatures scorching hot. To build a supertall structure in such an environment is, in itself, a delicate form of coexistence with nature. To ensure this towering building stands firm, the Chinese design and construction team—without any prior experience to guide them—meticulously refined their plans again and again, conducting countless trials of material mixtures. High-strength concrete was repeatedly pumped, tested, and improved, ultimately enabling this ever-growing skyscraper to stand tall and stable amidst the desert sands.

“Every day, we watch it grow taller—just as we’d watch a tree take root and thrive in the desert,” an Egyptian engineer once told me at the construction site. He said that Chinese technology here isn’t just a cold set of words; it’s become tangible and vivid: concrete is no longer merely a material—it’s also the result of painstaking precision achieved through relentless “battles” against scorching heat and sandstorms. Construction progress isn’t just a string of numbers; it’s the rhythm of seamless coordination and precise teamwork between Chinese and Egyptian personnel under the blazing sun. And technology is no longer an abstract set of parameters—it’s a layer upon layer of patience and faith woven into time itself.

The towering landmark is the result of the convergence of time, will, and conviction. This leap from nothing to something is not only a monumental feat in architectural history but also a vivid testament to China-Egypt cooperation. Driven by the joint initiative of building the Belt and Road, the grand vision for Egypt’s New Administrative Capital is gradually becoming a reality. Chinese and Egyptian engineers are working hand in hand, meticulously sketching out a future full of hope on the blank canvas of the desert.

The landmark tower is a vibrant highlight in this grand panorama. Looking out across the landscape, we see that the fruits of China-Egypt cooperation have already spread far and wide. In the Central Business District of the New Administrative Capital, towering skyscrapers echo one another, resembling an urban forest rising abruptly from the desert; in the Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone between China and Egypt, once-barren wastelands have been transformed into a thriving industrial hub, where over a hundred domestic and foreign enterprises have taken root, creating tens of thousands of job opportunities. In Aswan Governorate, the Benban Photovoltaic Industrial Park—a project in which China has played a key role—continues to deliver clean electricity. In the transportation sector, urban rail and light-rail networks built by Chinese companies keep expanding, reshaping the very fabric of Egyptian cities. One project after another is interconnected, like threads meticulously woven together, transforming bilateral cooperation from mere blueprints on paper into an integral part of everyday life.

Today, the majestic landmark tower has become a symbol—marking both the height of our cooperation and pointing toward the path ahead. This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Egypt. China will host the second China-Arab States Summit, ushering bilateral relations into a new stage characterized by greater maturity and deeper mutual engagement. In every building constructed, every road built, and every bridge erected by Chinese contractors, the principle of “mutual respect and win-win cooperation” has been repeatedly proven to be a practical and enduring truth—and it remains the most distinctive and solid foundation of China-Arab relations.

Standing here, overlooking the towering skyscrapers rising from the desert, I seem to glimpse an even broader horizon: On the path of joint development, China is marching side by side with Egypt and the Arab world, together writing a new chapter for our era. As the construction of the landmark tower has shown—when willpower converges and shared beliefs align, even deserts can bloom, and the monument to cooperation will ultimately stand tall at the pinnacle of our times.

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