“It was very lively before,” Jalil cherished the good old days since he had been here for more than 20 years, “you could see restaurants had their tables outside, with people sitting, eating food, enjoying beer, chatting in the evening almost in every Hutong (a narrow lane), especially in summer. But this caused some pollution so slowly these things had gone.”

These changes are also recognized by Muhammad Kamran, a Pakistani chef devoting himself to promoting Pakistani cuisine in Chengdu, China, the country he loves very much.

Muhammad Shahbaz, a Pakistani surgeon and PhD scholar at China’s Shandong University, is impressed by China’s poverty alleviation campaign over the past decades.

His perception about China was different before. “I used to see the Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies on TV, and it was everybody’s thought that every Chinese can play Kongfu and every Chinese rides bicycle.”

Spending more than a decade in China as a medical student, he witnessed the rise of China from Beijing Olympics in 2008, and he also saw how China help countries along Belt and Road keep better health care opportunities for common people. “China not only helped other countries, its economy has also boosted.”

Also, he mentioned, as the world’s second largest economy, China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty. “700 million is something. Pakistan has a population of around 220 million people, if you lift the needy above the poverty line, that’s a big achievement. I pay my tribute to that and I like the idea of BRI.”

“I hope that China will emerge as a beautiful country, not just financially but also culturally,” Jalil told China Economic Net, adding, “Pakistan and China can cooperate in many, many fields and now we have been collaborating already. We are working together.”