Xi Jinping’s Special Envoy to Attend GEM's Opening

​President Xi Jinping’s Special Envoy and Minister of Culture and Tourism Sun Yeli will participate in the inauguration ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) scheduled for next Saturday.

​The visit comes in response to an official invitation extended by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

The GEM has been closed to the public since 15 October. It will remain so until 3 November to allow teams to finalise installations, including the galleries of Tutankhamen, which will feature over 5,400 artefacts.

The government has also announced 1 November as a paid public holiday for the nation's workers to ease logistics for foreign delegations and allow Egyptians to celebrate. The Ministry of Education has also given millions of school pupils the day off.

Egyptian officials hope the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum will give a major boost to the tourism industry, aiming to attract millions of visitors annually, amid a national plan to raise the number of tourists visiting Egypt to 30 million annually by 2030, from 15.7 million tourists in 2024.

The inauguration ceremony is expected to last for three days for world leaders, dignitaries, kings, heads of state, and cultural figures. It will pave the road for full public access to the facility on November 4.

The main opening ceremony, scheduled for November 1, will last 2 hours starting at 7:30 PM local time. The ceremony will be exclusively streamed on GEM's official TikTok channel for global audiences, enabling real-time viewing for those unable to attend in person.

Giant screens will broadcast it live in public squares across Giza and Hurghada for communal celebrations. One of these screens is placed outside Cairo University in Gaza.

The list of confirmed attendees includes, so far, a wide range of dignitaries, including the president of Germany, the king of the Netherlands, the king and queen of Spain, and Princess Akiko of Mikasa of Japan.

Most details of the official opening ceremony of the museum remain under wraps, apparently in the Egyptian authorities' bid to build anticipation.

There will be musical and artistic displays that draw on Pharaonic themes, possibly including live orchestras, dance troupes in period costumes, or immersive projections on the museum's facade.

The museum's opening ceremony is also expected to feature addresses by President Sisi and international guests, focusing on Egypt's role as a cradle of civilisation and the GEM's global significance.