The "National Treasures of Ancient Egypt" exhibition has been popular during its one-month show in China's metropolis of Shanghai and will continue on to the capital Beijing.

The exhibition attracted 280,000 visitors since it began on Oct.18, which was the first Egyptian treasures exhibition in China and the largest exhibition of treasures showed overseas by Egypt.

"I might only have few chances to see so many valuable ancient Egyptian treasures in my life," said retired history teacher Liu Qianjian, who was reluctant to leave after staying at the exhibition four hours.

As the tickets were much cheaper than most cultural performances, 50 yuan (US$6.1) at most, the exhibition drew many ordinary people, half students, said Ding Xudong, the exhibition designer.

All the 143 treasures were from the Museum of Cairo, worth US$260 million. The most ancient dated back more than 5,000 years. Exhibits included the "Relief of Ramses II smiting enemies", "Pyramidion of Ptahenia" and "Statuette of the Cobra Goddess", which was gained back from the United States in May.

(People's Daily November 19, 2003)