Ahmed al-Saeed, 33, has already lived many lives: as an army officer, teacher, translator, tour guide, linguistic advisor, publisher and TV host. It is probably not a coincidence that he comes from Egypt, a country where cats, believed to have many lives as well, have been worshipped since time immemorial.

Saeed is the general manager of Wisdom House Culture and Media, named after the House of Wisdom, a major intellectual center and library in Baghdad more than 1,300 years old. It is a publishing house with an office in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China. The company specializes in Arabic-to-Chinese and Chinese-to-Arabic translations and Saeed is proficient in Chinese - a real zhongguotong, an old China hand.  

All roads lead to Ningxia

He studied Chinese at Al-Azhar University in Cairo from 2000 to 2006, specializing in Chinese literature and Islamic studies. Then he spent six months working as a bilingual Chinese-Arabic translator for the Embassy of Albania in Egypt as lots of Chinese in Egypt wanted to invest in Albania at that time and the embassy wanted to facilitate communication with them.

He then did a three-year stint in the Egyptian Army as a Chinese translator and teacher. Later, while working in Dubai as a translator in legal matters, he came across officials from Ningxia. They told him they were planning a China-Arab States' Economic and Trade Forum and asked him if he would help set up its official website. Always keen to take up new challenges, he agreed.

"On June 29, 2010, I arrived in Ningxia," he recalled. "I originally planned to return to Egypt once the forum was over by the end of September. I was supposed to stay three months. It's already been five years!"

He attributed the protracted stay to the living comforts in Yinchuan: "Ningxia has fulfilled all my basic requirements. Food-wise, 85 percent of the restaurants here are halal (compliant with Islamic teachings). There are mosques everywhere. As far as work is concerned, there are lots of opportunities to grow, especially in the culture industry. [Yinchuan] is quiet, safe and salubrious, far from the hustle and bustle of places like Beijing or Shanghai." 

Ethnic unity a major asset

Saeed praised the ethnic unity in Ningxia. "The Hui ethnic minority embodies [both] Chinese and Islamic cultures," he said.

About 27 percent of the population in Yinchuan are Hui people, who are Muslims, giving Ningxia its strong Islamic culture. Their proportion rises to 58 percent in Wuzhong, another major city in Ningxia. "There's even a famous [county in Ningxia] called Tongxin where the Han are the ethnic minority! They account for only 22 percent of the population," Saeed exclaimed.

Ningxia offers a plethora of advantages for Muslims. "For example, if I go to Sichuan, it's impossible for me to eat [there]. In Ningxia, I can find all the Chinese delicacies prepared the halal way."

Food is not the only priority. Saeed thought about safety, opportunities and lifestyle before he came to Ningxia. "Ningxia can cater to every conceivable need," he said.

Saeed discovered the closeness between the Han and the Hui people. "Sometimes, you see elderly people sitting by the gate of a mosque, chatting while playing cards. Some of them are Hans and some are Huis. When it's time for prayer, the Hans wait outside until it's over, and soon they resume their game." 

Promoting local culture

Saeed founded his company in 2011 after he realized that cultural exchanges between China and Arab countries were not as strong as their economic ties. The company aimed to introduce Ningxia and the Hui culture to the Muslim, especially Arab, world. "If I think a book on Ningxia or Hui culture is worth translating, we buy the publishing rights and translate it so that it can be published in Arab countries."

Wisdom House has partnerships with publishing houses in Egypt and other Arab countries, publishing novels, teaching materials, history books and travel guides.

Saeed's passion for this region drew the attention of the local media. They asked him to host a television program, This Is Ningxia, to introduce Ningxia to foreigners. He wanted the show to introduce Ningxia and the Muslim culture in China not only to foreigners but also to the Chinese. 

"The first season was a success and we had positive feedback from the audience," he said. "Just think about it: a Chinese and a foreigner introducing a place [in China] and telling real stories."

Saeed is interested in people, especially those who have little say in the great scheme of things: the elderly, the destitute, those who struggle to scrape a living. "I'm not interested in modernity, and nothing really attracts me in Shanghai or Beijing."

He is also a born storyteller. "Let me tell you a story that moved me deeply," he said. "It was in Xinjiang [an autonomous region in northwest China]. There was this old couple, originally from Henan [a province in central China]. They moved to Xinjiang in the 1950s and joined the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. [a government organization founded in 1954 to promote economic development]. They had three children.

"Some 40 years ago, the mother found a cot in a public toilet. There was a baby in it. She brought the baby home and fed her. The baby had all the features of Xinjiang's Uygur minority community. They were Hans and already had these three kids. [Still] they adopted her and gave her the education of a Uygur.

"They stopped eating pork [and] adopted Uygur customs. She learned the Uygur language, and they even found her a Uygur man to marry. Even though this family wasn't Muslim and had the choice to do otherwise, they decided to raise her in the Uygur tradition."

Saeed deplored the Westernization of many large Chinese cities. "I spent some time in Shanghai, and it didn't feel like China. Smaller places have maintained their Chinese authenticity. If you want to understand Chinese society, you have to start from the bottom."

But Ningxia too has experienced dramatic changes in recent years. "I go back to Egypt every year for a month, and when I come back, I can hardly recognize Yinchuan," he said.

The city is currently attracting an increasing number of residents from neighboring provinces. "You can now see license plates from Gansu [a province in the northwest] and Inner Mongolia [an autonomous region in north China] on the roads. A lot of people from Inner Mongolia invest in real estate here or just move in and work here." When he first moved to Yinchuan, the business district hadn't even been built.

Saeed is adamant that he will never leave Yinchuan: "This is where I feel the most comfortable. We do 90 percent of our business in Beijing, but we still want to have our headquarters here because I love this place."