In 2018, the first official Chinese-Egyptian joint archaeological mission was launched by the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Gao Wei, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, CASS, and a member of the team, talks on eight years of successful collaboration between Chinese and Egyptian archaeologists. Beyond the technical challenge of uncovering structures buried for centuries, Gao also recalls the deep people-to-people bonds formed during the 2020 pandemic, proving that this mission is as much about human connection as it is about historical discovery.