Balloons over the pyramids 🎈

Hey friends, welcome back to the Egypt Weekly Roundup!

Last week we told you Xi Jinping was on his way. He has now been and gone, leaving behind five signed agreements, more than twenty cooperation documents, and a third phase for the Chinese industrial zone on the Suez Canal. What Cairo actually got out of it is below.

Closer to home, there is a balloon going up over the pyramids, and it was a hard week on the roads.

Let’s get into it.

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• Egyptian-Chinese relations closer than ever 🇨🇳

• A balloon-riding experience at the Pyramids 🎈

• Gold at the Mediterranean Games🥇

CHINA | DIPLOMACY | TRADE
WHAT EGYPT ACTUALLY GOT FROM XI’S VISIT

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, 1 September, for the first visit by a Chinese leader to Egypt in a decade. He held talks with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Ittihadiya Palace the following day, greeted by a 21-gun salute, and toured the Grand Egyptian Museum that afternoon. Several main roads in the capital were closed while he moved between the two.

Five deals, twenty-odd documents: The two sides signed five formal agreements and more than 20 further cooperation documents, spanning the digital economy, semiconductors, shipbuilding, renewable energy, electric vehicles and agriculture. The centrepiece was a third phase for the Egyptian-Chinese industrial zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, which already hosts roughly 200 companies and about USD 4 billion in investment.

The trade gap is still the trade gap: Bilateral trade reached nearly USD 20.7 billion by the end of 2025. In the first half of this year, Egyptian exports to China came to USD 840.8 million against USD 10.4 billion of imports, according to CAPMAS. Exports are rising fast, up close to 200 percent year on year, but from a very small base.

Nile, Gaza, Taiwan: The joint statement called on Nile Basin countries to respect international law and avoid causing harm to one another, wording that mirrors Egypt’s long-running legal case against Ethiopia’s dam. Both sides backed consolidating the Gaza ceasefire, and Cairo restated its commitment to the One China policy.

The wider game: Xi used the visit to argue that Middle Eastern states should decide their own affairs without outside interference, and offered Chinese help protecting shipping lanes disrupted by the war on Iran. That pitch arrives while Washington is pressing Cairo over a Huawei bid to build Egypt’s AI data centre infrastructure. For now, Egypt is taking both calls.

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TOURISM | GIZA | VISITOR EXPERIENCE
A BALLOON IS GOING UP OVER THE PYRAMIDS

Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy toured the Giza plateau on Sunday, 30 August, to check on progress with a tethered balloon that will carry visitors above the pyramids. The project is being built by Tashreef for Tourism Marketing with the French firm Aerophile, and Fathy said it will be the first of its kind at the site.

What it is: A fixed balloon rises and descends on a cable rather than drifting, so passengers get an aerial view of the plateau and return to the same spot. Aerophile has built the same kind of attraction at sites in Europe and North America. Fathy was accompanied on the visit by Giza antiquities director Ashraf Muhyi El-Din and Tashreef’s chairman.

What we do not know yet: No opening date, ticket price or investment figure has been announced, and the ministry described the visit as a review of work stages rather than a launch.

Why it matters: Egypt drew around 9 million tourists in the first half of 2026, roughly 4 percent up on the same period last year, and officials have talked about reaching 30 million a year by the end of the decade. Getting there means more than ticket sales, which is the logic behind the run of additions to the plateau over the past few years, from the 9 Pyramids Lounge to electric shuttle buses. The balloon is the latest, and the most visible from the ground.

The caveat: The plateau is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and every new structure there attracts scrutiny over how it sits against a 4,500-year-old skyline. Expect that argument to resurface when the balloon actually goes up.

ROAD SAFETY | SOUTH SINAI
17 KILLED AS BUS OVERTURNS ON THE DAHAB-NUWEIBA ROAD

Seventeen people were killed and 28 injured when a bus overturned near Al-Saada on the Dahab-Nuweiba road in South Sinai on Wednesday, 2 September, according to the Health Ministry. All 17 died at the scene. Twenty ambulances were sent once reports of the crash came in.

Who was on board: Jordan’s semi-official Al-Mamlaka TV reported that 10 of those killed were Jordanian nationals. Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar ordered hospitals to cover treatment, medicine and equipment for the injured.

Three weeks after Ismailia: The crash follows the collision near El-Qassasin on 11 August that killed 18 day labourers, many of them children, and injured around 30 more.

The number behind it: Road deaths in Egypt rose 10.8 percent in 2025 to 5,829, up from 5,260 the year before, according to CAPMAS. The government introduced tougher traffic penalties in December 2025. El-Sisi told officials to keep improving road safety in his Mawlid address on 26 August, six days before this crash.