China has made major advances in a variety of fields and begun to play a bigger role on the international stage this year, said Mark Levine, an American professor at Minzu University of China, in an exclusive interview with China News Network.

Looking ahead to 2024, Levine said that process will continue.

Levine has written many songs about China's beautiful landscape. He has been to places all across China, including Zhunyi in Guizhou Province, Xibaipo in Hebei Province, and Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

"Each of those (places) brought forth many exciting and important experiences for me and told me much more about China," Levine said.

He said he is impressed by the work that China has done and continues to do on poverty alleviation.

China has achieved major scientific, economic, educational, cultural and social advances, Levine said. It is an exciting place because things are changing constantly, he added.

International relations are complicated and the situation is unpredictable. To Levine, China is a very calm and patient country. "On the international scene, China has begun to play a bigger role this year, negotiating peace between different countries," he said.

Having lived in China for 18 years, he believes China has been a single, united, and progressive country.

"Foreigners" he meets in China come from a wide variety of places. “Everybody is extraordinarily impressed by China’s development,” said the professor.

They said "I didn't know what to expect in China, and this is quite a developed and advanced place," Levine quoted their words.

The professor has composed many songs and played them with his guitar.

He wrote his first song when he lived in Jiangsu Province in 2006. The song was called "Huaian, promise of the future."

This year he composed a song called "There is nowhere else in the world I’d rather be," in which he wrote, "The people are so friendly and so welcoming. The warmth they show me makes me want to sing. It's a place that is both modern and filled with history, although some parts of people's lives contain some mystery. When I wake up in the morning in the PRC, I'm happy 'cause there's nowhere else in the world I would rather be."

"I can't imagine a more exciting place to be," he said. "Foreigners who come need to work a little bit harder in helping the world to understand what a fine, respectful place this is."