trips, noodles and his own band with a group of chinese friends... australian scholar rod campbell described his days in china as among the "happiest" in his life.
campbell then entered the melbourne university to study geography and went to china in 2000 for a study trip. two years later, he visited again, doing a project about grain-growing and the management of the yellow river.
he also traveled a lot during the three years, talking with farmers in counties, and went to see the murals in dunhuang (a city in gansu province, famous for the mogao grottoes, a world cultural heritage site). he even went to xinjiang uygur autonomous region, where he had a good time.
his personal experience gave him the reason to question some reports of western media.
"i still have some friends in xinjiang who i talk to on wechat sometimes. i had a great time there. i think some of the studies that get quoted, i think, are pretty misleading," said campbell.
during his visits, he also witnessed the changes in china.
the scholar said he was sad to see the relationship between china and australia come to this stage.
it is his wish that the two countries could work on areas of mutual interest, such as agricultural research and climate policy.
"there's still a lot of mutual interest, a lot of mutual respect between people at those levels," said campbell.
