When I was on the left side of 30s, I worked as an international scientist in Tsukuba, Japan, a science city newly built by the Japanese government. A 45-minute drive from Tokyo, Tsukuba is home to 31 national scientific research institutions. Thanks to the internationalized research environment there, I was able to interact with numerous foreign scholars.
A group photo of Prof. Dr. Tanigaki (center in first row) and his research team at the Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (BAQIS), February 2022.
Later, I moved to Tohoku University in Sendai, serving as a professor of physics. I have many graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from China. I did my utmost to foster an internationalized environment for them, and I was elated to see many of them return home after completing their studies, where they take on important roles in the Chinese academic community.
Exploring cultural treasures of China
In 2007, I visited China for the first time and had chances to visit the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University and Beihang University. On my several visits since then, I witnessed how China has gradually turned its modernization blueprint into reality.
In my first few years in China, everyone paid in cash. Before long, more and more Chinese used credit cards to pay, which was much more convenient for us foreigners. Nowadays, almost all people in China adopt mobile payment. Mobile phones can be used not only for payment but also for various situations in daily life. I'm deeply impressed.
Before I came to Beijing in 2020, my basic understanding of China was limited to what I had read from books and conversations with the Chinese students in the laboratory. As known to all, China is one of the world's four ancient civilizations (together with ancient Babylon, ancient Egypt and ancient India) which thrived near huge river systems. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers were the cradles of the Chinese civilization. I used to feast my eyes on Chinese paintings depicting the two rivers, observing the delicate changes in brushstrokes and marveling at the steep cliffs flanking the rapids.