Professor Carlo Socol, director of the Seeco Educational Research Center at Zhejiang University, has an elegant Chinese name Su Guoyi - literally means land of enchantment. His Chinese colleagues and students call him Professor Su.

After working for long periods in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Su has gained an in-depth understanding of Chinese society and culture, and in recent years he has established contacts with dozens of universities on mainland China.

In 2007, Su co-founded Seeco Educational Research Center with Professor Xu Xiaozhou from Zhejiang University. Su then began his mission to enhance cooperation between universities in China and Italy and to increase understanding among academics in the two countries.

Over the past few years, Su and the Seeco center have invited many Italian academics to China to attend seminars and discussions. He also founded a Seeco scholarship program to finance Chinese students’ further studies in Italy.

After moving to Hangzhou in September, Su said he found the city clean and the people friendly. He said he hopes to live in Hangzhou for the next decade.