Chapter 4 Talking about Egypt's impressions with children

Dear children: At the end of last year, I participated in the Chinese delegation attending the Asian-African People's Unity Conference. I went to Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and held a meeting for seven days. I saw and heard many interesting things. Now I am here to talk to the children. The name of Egypt, a country, is not unfamiliar to us.The winter before last year, when Egypt was invaded by the British, French and Israeli armies, we Chinese people stood up to support them, sent them donations of more than 11 million yuan, sold them beef and mutton, and Beijing had more than 40 Thousands of people supported the demonstrations in Egypt. Children will definitely remember these things.I also knew some geography of Egypt as a child.I know that in Egypt, there is a Nile River that flows from south to north. This big river is the lifeline of Egypt, because the banks of the Nile River are the most fertile land in Egypt. The Egyptian people have called the Nile River Father Nile since ancient times.When I was a child, I also saw pictures of Egypt, very tall and large pyramids, with rows of palm trees or coconut trees beside them, and Egyptians with white cloths on their heads and robes, walking past the pyramids on camels .

Until this time, when we flew over Egypt, I didn't realize the relationship between the Nile River and the lives of the Egyptian people.When we set off from Beijing, the leaves in Beijing had already fallen, and the fields were also withered and yellow.We passed through the Soviet Union and some countries in Eastern Europe, and there were also ice and snow everywhere.But when we arrived in Egypt, there was a blue sunny sky above, and green and orderly fields below. The Nile River and its tributaries criss-crossed the vast fields, and rows of tall and tall coconut trees were planted on the ridges of the fields. A thick, palm-leaved tree.

In the middle of the field, there are a handful of yellow mud farmhouses. This scenery is just like the south of the Yangtze River in China. It is really beautiful.But farther away from the river bank, there is an endless desert without even grass. Later, we learned from our Egyptian friends that there is almost no rain in Egypt throughout the year, and it is very rare to have occasional light rains in summer.Therefore, most houses in rural areas have no roofs, and they are covered with sorghum stalks when it is cold.The Nile is the only source of water on the fields.The tall and beautiful tree we saw in the painting was originally thought to be coconut or palm, but it turned out to be a kind of date palm tree with rows of long dates on it, which is called jujube in ancient Chinese books. Very sweet and delicious.

A pyramid, not a tower, is a tomb with a pointed bottom and a pointed top made of large stones.This is the tomb of an Egyptian emperor five thousand years ago.The largest one is in the desert outside Cairo, less than twenty minutes away from Cairo.This pyramid is 30 storeys high and uses 2.3 million stones, each of which weighs 5,000 catties on average. These stones were transported by ship from afar.Five thousand years ago, when the tools of labor were very naive, it was not easy to do such a large project. As soon as our plane touched down, we met the enthusiastic Egyptian people.When we got off the plane, many young men and women in green and gray clothes rushed up to welcome us.They scrambled to stuff the green Egyptian flag with a white crescent and three stars on it, and bright red rose bouquets into our hands, shouting warmly "Long live China-Egypt friendship", "Long live peace", "Long live peace" and "Long live peace". Long Live the Unity of the Asian-African Peoples” kept sending us to the hotel, but was still reluctant to leave.

On the opening day of the conference, early in the morning, hundreds of male and female students stood in front of our hotel. They held national flags, paper doves of peace, and many welcome slogans. They wore various uniforms and were very orderly. standing in line.The youngest students were only about ten years old. They wore green hats, yellow shirts and shorts. With their small faces up, they stared at a window of the room where the representatives lived and cheered loudly. They looked really cute. There are more than 500 delegates participating in this Asian-African People's Solidarity Conference, representing nearly 50 countries in Asia and Africa.Although many representatives did not understand each other, our friendship was deeply communicated in the smiles, friendly eyes and warm handshakes.We have all been oppressed by the colonists. Most African people are still under the oppression of Western colonialism and live as slaves. But we Asian and African people have finally stood up. We know that unity is strength. That's why today's unity meeting is held. We must fight against Western colonialism together and strive for peace, independence, friendship and cooperation.

Children, during those few days in Egypt, what we felt most deeply was the love of the Egyptian people for the Chinese people.As soon as the special car taken by the Chinese representative appeared on the street, many people would gather around to cheer and applaud.We walked into any shop, and when they found out that we were Chinese, they held our hands with smiles on their faces and said, "Thank you for your donations, thank you for sending us frozen beef and frozen mutton Those who help us when we are in trouble are our best friends, and we will never forget your friendship!" Speaking of their heroic resistance, we participated in the celebration of Victory Day in Port Said on December 23 last year, which was the first anniversary of the Egyptian people cooperating with their own troops and driving the British and French allied forces into the sea.The situation that day was very lively, so I won’t go into details here. What touched me the most was that in the parade, there was a team of children who participated in the defense of Port Said. The youngest children were only eleven or twelve years old. Wearing a backpack, he strutted past the reviewing stand and was warmly cheered by the audience.After the parade, I took one of the children, because we were going to lay flowers on the tomb of the martyrs, and I only had a few words with him.It is said that his father died in the Anti-Japanese War, and he and his little companions did a lot of work in the war to defend the motherland, such as reconnaissance, ambulance, delivery of letters, etc., which played a considerable role.When Egyptian people watch Chinese movies, they like "Chicken Feather Letter" the most. They like to watch the Chinese people's resistance to the imperialist invaders, and they also like to watch the heroic achievements of our little soldier Haiwa.In the strong feeling of defending the country, the people of our two countries are connected by flesh and blood!

In 1955, I went to India to attend the Asian Nations Conference, and last year I went to Egypt to attend the Asian-African People's Unity Conference. It can be seen that under the banner of opposing war, defending peace, and friendly cooperation, the power of peace is growing day by day. The world is expanding, and our future, especially that of our children, is bright and happy. Let us all try our best to achieve this great goal in our own positions!First edition in the spring of 1958. )