4.1 MET: Mişr! Mişr! Mişr!

My first night in Cairo was also when the final match of 2008 African Cup of Nations took place between Egypt and Cameroon. After the only but decisive goal scored by the Egyptian soccer team, the city started to boil. People were congregating on the streets around the once fashionable Midan Talaat Harb, where I lived, and the famous Midan Tahrir nearby, or Liberation Square.



Car horns mingled steadily with excited singing, chanting, and cheering. Black-and-red national flags filled the night sky accompanied by colorful confetti. Midan Tahrir was soon crowed with overjoyed Cairenes.



Fireworks and fire shows rekindled Cairo’s warm and pleasant winter night. Cars and buses passed by slowly, many of which came from a distance to join the celebration in Central Cairo. Passengers with their upper bodies outside the vehicle windows, echoed their countrymen on the street with their own roar of ecstasy and national pride.



The thrill was contagious. I couldn’t get by without being noticed. A few young Cairenes asked me where I was from, to which I responded “China”. They suddenly showed great interest and admiration and pulled me in to the big dancing circle. I grabbed a big Egyptian flag and joined the cheering crowd. I waved the flag and yelled “Mişr! Mişr! Mişr!”, Arabic for Egypt, which was only reverberated by the multitude. Soon, someone started to shout “China! China! China!”, and everyone followed. It was really a surreal experience for me, a Chinese tourist waving an Egyptian flag, dancing in the middle of Liberation Square with the locals who were shouting along “China”!



With such a wild welcome, I started my four-week vacation in the Middle East.