H.E. Mohamed Al-Dehaimi, Ambassador of the State of Qatar, visited Peking University on April 2, 2021. He was the first ambassador of Middle East countries to visit PKU after the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Hao Ping, president of Peking University, and Wang Bo, vice president of PKU, met H.E. Al-Dehaimi at Linhuxuan. President Hao Ping first extended warm welcome to H.E. Al-Dehaimi. Peking University put high on its agenda exchanges with Arab countries in culture, education, science and technology, as Hao Ping noted. Recent years have seen an expanding cooperation between PKU and Qatar universities, and both sides have made fruitful achievements in deepening people-to-people exchanges and public health cooperations. The joint efforts from PKU and Qatar have generated huge amounts of opportunities and forged a bright future.

 

Hao Ping expressed gratitude to the Embassy of the State of Qatar and H.E. Al-Dehaimi for their great support to PKU. Going forward, PKU hopes to deepen the cooperation with the Qatar Embassy and strengthen the bond with Qatar universities, so as to promote the China-Qatar cooperation in education, culture and other sectors that will better people’s well-being of both countries. Peking University will continue to support and act as an active participator of activities held by the Qatar Embassy as always.

 

President Hao Ping met H.E. Mohamed Al-Dehaimi at Linhuxuan

 

Al-Dehaimi extended his thanks to Hao Ping for his sparing time to arrange this meeting. The State of Qatar Chair in Middle Eastern Studies at Peking University, which was build on PKU’s time-honored culture, served as a great platform to the development of PKU-Qatar cooperations. He hopes that the friendship and cooperation between Qatar and PKU could go on in the future with more available channels for communication. The Qatar Embassy is willing to act as a bridge through which ideas, thoughts and cultural exchanges will be smoother.

 

Exchanges of youth represents an important part in people-to-people exchanges between two countries, as Al-Dehaimi noted, the Embassy is ready to work with PKU to hold activities related to the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup, as a way to introduce the Qatar culture to the Chinese youth.

 

 

Mr. Al-Dehaimi extended to PKU a football shirt with Chinese words “Stay Strong China”

 

Also presented at the meeting were Ning Qi, Director of PKU Organization Department and Dean of PKU School of Foreign Languages, Fu Zhiming, vice Dean of School of Foreign Languages at PKU, Lin Fengming, Director of the Department of Arabic Language and Culture, SFL-PKU, Wu Bingbing, chair professor of State of Qatar Chair in Middle Eastern Studies at PKU, Xia Hongwei, Director of Office of International Relations, Sara Sada, counselor of Qatar Embassy, and Ons Zlitni, news specialist of the Qatar Embassy.

 

A group photo of all attended the meeting

 

After the talk, Mr. Ambassador and his colleagues, accompanied by Prof. Fu Zhiming and Dr. Wu Binging, took a visit to PKU campus, during which Prof. Fu gave a detailed introduction to PKU landmarks including Statue of the Former PKU President Cai Yuanpei, Weiming Lake, and Boya Tower. Mr. Al-Dehaimi heaped praise to PKU’s rich culture and beautiful campus.

 

Mr. Al-Dehaimi visited the PKU campus

 

Later, Mr. Ambassador met freshmen of PKU Department of Arabic Language and Culture, who were invited to the Ambassador’s Residence on Dec. 12, 2020. Mr. Ambassador recalled those beautiful memories when he first met those loveable students, and called the Arabic names of each student. Al-Dehaimi first inquired students about their study of the Arabic language, and encourage them to practice as much as possible.

 

Wang Xinyi, on behalf of her classmates, extended great thanks to Al-Dehaimi for his warm invitation to PKU students to visit his residence where they get a personal experience of the Arabic culture. Wang also expressed their firm belief to master Arabic and sincere hope to complete further study to Qatar, which will shore them up to become bridges between both cultures. The freshmen then sang a song named Heartbeat in Syrian dialect. Al-Dehaimi praised those students for the endeavors they made in learning Arabic in less than a year, and their zest in the Arabic culture. He invited those freshmen to pay a second visit to his residence, and expect to see them made great achievements in learning Arabic.

 

Xu Zhengzhe, monitor of the freshmen class, sent Mr. Ambassador a PKU-themed shirt as a gift. Then, Al-Dehaimi and the students took a group photo recording this wonderful moment. Al-Dehaimi also visited the King Abdul Aziz Public Library PKU Branch.

 

Mr. Al-Dehaimi and students from Arabic Department

 

Finally, Al-Dehaimi had a talk with Fu Zhiming and Wu Bingbing at Foreign Language Building. Fu Zhiming introduced the history, development and the discipline construction of Department of Arabic Language and Culture, in particular, he made a detailed introduction about the development of State of Qatar Chair in Middle Eastern Studies at PKU. Fu Zhiming sent to Mr. Ambassador Arab-Chinese dictionary and some monographs published by Arabic Department as gifts. Both sides later discussed issues relating to further exchanges and cooperations.

 

A group photo of Mr. Al-Dehaimi, his suite and professors from Arabic Department