[Photo provided to China Daily]

Language boost

"My Chinese improved beyond my expectation when I was staying with these local people. After two-years of study in China, Bellassen went back to France in 1975. He took part-time jobs teaching Chinese in primary and middle schools, and college in Paris.

Since finishing his PhD dissertation on "Chinese people's philosophic life", he has been involved in Chinese education and cultural diffusion.

Bellassen admires current foreign students studying Chinese since they have much more convenient learning conditions with the application of multimedia.

Before the summer holiday in 2014, there were 37,000 senior high school students choosing Chinese as one of the subjects for their college entrance exams, he says. "Half of them have been studying Chinese since middle school."

People of the two countries still have misunderstanding of each other, despite the fact that China and France have had diplomatic ties for 50 years. Many Chinese people cannot tell the difference between French cuisine and Italian food, Bellassen says. "There are still a lot of French people who think that Japanese kimonos originate in China."

"China and Europe may be geographically distant," he says, "but globalization has shortened and will continue shortening the distance between China and the Western world in cultural awareness."

In the Chinese expert's view, China and France share some similarities: centuries-old history, splendid culture and the people's yearning for a comfortable lifestyle.

Regardless of these similarities, Bellassen is not pleased by China's fast pace of change. He admits that living conditions have been much improved in China and foreign products can now be found easily here.

"But the heavier air pollution and newly built, strange buildings mean that my second hometown, Beijing, has lost its unique city character," the Frenchman said. It's hard for him to feel the charm and mystery of the ancient capital.

"Beijing's soul is the quadrangle of Siheyuan, the city wall and gates, beside the Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City," he says.

"Foreigners started to learn about China in the days of Marco Polo," he says. What Bellessan has been doing is tell France about the whole history and culture of China.