RIYADH, 6 July 2006 - The Kingdom will sign a series of agreements with a number of countries in the East to promote cultural exchange, according to Abdullah Al-Jasser, deputy minister of Culture and Information.

"Such accords will help promote the values of our rich heritage and facilitate the holding of cultural shows and dialogues to understand each other," Al-Jasser told reporters after inaugurating a Chinese cultural exhibition at the King Abdul Aziz Historical Center in Riyadh on Monday.

He added that arrangements are being made to organize cultural shows in Egypt, Japan and India beginning November this year to highlight Saudi culture, art, architecture and folklore.

"Such a show held in Tunis was a great success," he said.

Al-Jasser and Chinese Ambassador Wu Chun Hua jointly inaugurated the two weeklong exhibition entitled Envoy of Peace from China at the National Museum. The show attracted visitors from all walks of life, including members of the diplomatic corps, officials from the private and public sectors, academicians, researchers and members of the Chinese community.

The exhibition is dedicated to Zheng He, the great Chinese Muslim mariner, who led a fleet of discovery from China to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Americas some 600 years ago. His fleet consisted of over 200 ships with 27,000 sailors. He was engaged in exchanges in areas including culture, calendar development, architecture, medicine, navigation and shipbuilding.

Al-Jasser said his ministry hopes to take the exhibition to all major Saudi cities to tell the people of the cultural links they had with ancient Chinese. "It is interesting to know that Zheng He, a Chinese Muslim, led a Haj delegation to Makkah six centuries ago," he noted.

Al-Jasser said the Kingdom would organize a Saudi Cultural Week in China followed by a Chinese Cultural Week in the Kingdom.

"The purpose of the exhibition is to show the nature of the peace-loving attitude of the Chinese people and to tell the people here about the historical links between the two countries," Ambassador Chun Hua said.

According to records from early Chinese travelers who visited Makkah and Madinah, the two cities were blessed with abundant natural resources with a wide variety of agricultural products, the envoy pointed out.

Zheng He had bartered Chinese porcelain and musk for gold, silver and oryx horns from the cultures of the Arabian Peninsula.