LANZHOU, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Giada Donzel, a 31-year-old doctoral student from Italy, recently completed a six-month academic visit at Lanzhou University in northwest China's Gansu Province, her third stay in China over the past decade.
For her, understanding China has been a decade-long journey of discovery, which has taken her from the foothills of the Alps to Gansu along China's ancient SilK Road, and shaped her into a scholar of rural cultural tourism.
Her first encounter with China in 2016 left an indelible impression. "Everything I saw was shining," she recalled. As an exchange student of Chinese language and literature from Italy, she spent four months at a university in Beijing.
The capital's seamless blend of ancient heritage and futuristic architecture, along with its vibrant urban life, took her breath away. "I met new people and listened to their stories. Their daily lives felt like fresh landscapes to someone like me, who grew up in a small town," she said.
The experiences sparked her interest in pursuing further study in China. In 2018, she enrolled in Northeastern University in Shenyang to pursue a master's degree in law. Immersing herself in the local life, she began to envision a future working in the country after graduation.
Her admiration for China is founded on a range of factors. She found the depth of Chinese culture inexhaustible, offering new discoveries each day. She also noted the cultural resonances between China and Italy -- a shared emphasis on family, respect for elders, a long history, and rich local traditions. "These commonalities make it easy for Italians to adapt to life in China," she said.
Giada's academic trajectory has been consistently guided by her passion for Chinese culture. Her choice to major in Chinese language and literature as an undergraduate was driven by a desire to understand a different culture. For her doctoral research, she has chosen to focus on China's cultural tourism development.
In September 2025, Giada arrived in China for her third stint, this time as a visiting scholar at the Center for Italy Studies, Lanzhou University. This trip had a clear academic purpose: to conduct field research on the development of rural cultural tourism in China, in support of her doctoral thesis.
In Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu, she gained invaluable insights into China's rural revitalization efforts. She observed the country's rapid transformation firsthand: the continuous upgrading of consumer products, the increasing presence of electric vehicles on the roads, and the expansion of solar and wind power facilities outside cities -- all testaments to technological progress.
In her eyes, Lanzhou is a place where history and modernity converge.
Over the past six months, in addition to Gansu, her research has taken her across Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Guizhou Province. Her fieldwork focused on local tourism infrastructure, business models, and culinary traditions, aiming to decode the academic underpinnings of China's rural revitalization practices.
China's rural revitalization strategy, launched at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017, aims to achieve basic modernization of agriculture and rural areas by 2035.
"Every region in China has its unique landscape and cultural heritage, which provide abundant resources for rural tourism," she noted.
Looking ahead, Giada has a clear vision for her future. "China's economic development is strong, and there are many opportunities," she said, expressing a deep attachment to the country. She aspired to build a bridge of cultural exchange between Italy and China through her work, helping more Italians discover and appreciate China while also introducing more Chinese friends to Italian culture.
"Many young Italians are eager to explore China, but the courses available in Italy on the country are far from sufficient to satisfy their curiosity," she said. "That gives me a sense of mission." ■
