1. Introduction

Over the past five years, China's relations with the major GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar) have developed rapidly, in both the scale and range of joint ventures, investments, and trade. Billions of dollars worth of manufactured goods, fossil fuels, and sovereign wealth investment funds are traveling back and forth between the Gulf and China, and increasing numbers of people and cultural exchanges are accompanying them. And although these exchanges are based on present-day economic and development needs, both the Chinese and the Gulf countries are well aware of the historic ties between these two regions and regularly refer to these ties when announcing new initiatives.

Although trade was the foundation of relations between China and the Gulf that began during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), over the centuries these relations evolved into a wide range of exchanges including scientific knowledge (of astronomy, medicine, pharmacology); engineering expertise (military, architectural, and hydraulic); Islamic scholarship; knowledge of Arabic and Persian, and artistic skills and craftsmanship. Today, although trade once again dominates relations between these two regions, cultural, artistic, and scholarly exchanges have begun to develop as well.

This chapter focuses on the lives, legacies, and present-day influences of the people who in the past, and again today, are travelling back and forth between China and the Gulf. Beginning with traders, from the earliest days of Islam to the present rush of businessmen today, the chapter then focuses on the growing number of Chinese workers in different fields coming to the Gulf. The next section describes the rapid development of the tourism industry and its related fields, followed by a section on educational exchanges and initiatives. The final section deals with cultural exchanges, using the recent extraordinary exhibit by the Chinese modern artist Cai Guo-qiang, at Mathaf: The Arab Museum of Modern Art, as a case-study.

2. Trading

Traders from the Gulf had been traveling to China since the earliest days of Islam, first settling in Guangzhou (Canton), and later in Quanzhou. So many Arab and Persian traders made Quanzhou their home that they gave it a new name Zaytun, or “olive”. These traders made the long and often treacherous trip to China on traditional dhows built in the Gulf region. The boats were packed with frankincense and other local aromatics from the region before setting off to the main ports of India and Sri Lanka where they picked up pearls, gemstones, ivory, spices, and other lightweight luxury goods, before heading up through the Straits of Malacca where additional spices were added to their cargo, and finally into the South China Sea and the port cities of China.