A cultural shift

In January 2016, during President Xi's visit to Saudi Arabia, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage to promote comprehensive bilateral cooperation in the cultural heritage sector.

The exchange of exhibitions by the two capital cities of the respective countries is only a part of this joint framework, according to Xie Bing, director of the SACH foreign communications department.

Meanwhile, from March to April this year, archaeologists from the National Center of Underwater Cultural Heritage conducted a joint research project with Saudi experts on al-Serrian, the ruins of an ancient port city near Mecca, which boomed between the 9th and 13th centuries.

"Achievements in the underwater excavation work have gone far beyond our expectations," Xie says. "Many crucial pieces of evidence about the Maritime Silk Road were unearthed during the archaeological survey."