Foreign attendees of the forum on the development in Tibet visit the Potala Palace on August 13,2014.[Photo/Chinanews.com]

"From the moment I landed in the airport of Lhasa until I was about to return, I was continuously noticing that the autonomous region benefits from a positive dimension indeed. Its modernization certainly mirrors that of the whole country," said George N. Tzogopoulos, who recently finished a trip to Tibet.

George N. Tzogopoulos who is a research fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, was invited to Tibet during the forum on the development in Tibet held in early August in Lhasa.

Tzogopoulos said during his blog posted on Global Times, "Westerners' content is highly negative as well as biased. In particular, Tibet is portrayed as an almost dangerous place where Tibetans are arguably suffering from being deprived if the basic human rights".

Tibet misunderstood in the West

"The first impression of an international visitor on Tibet is that the region is under the process of a construction boom as new highways, railway networks, buildings and hotels will be ready in the coming years," said Tzogopoulos.

During the trip, Tzogopoulos noticed that the autonomous region benefits from a positive dimension, including its modernization, the improving living standards of Tibetans, modernized education and supports from the central government.

He said, it is important that visiting Tibet gave me the chance to talk to ordinary citizens in person and discover their level of satisfaction with the situation.

The local government of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the State Council Information Office (SCIO) co-hosted a forum on the development in Tibet early August in Lhasa, the administrative capital of Tibet autonomous region.

Netizens:Tibet is different from western information

Netizens left messages behind Tzogopoulos's article，saying that they agree Tibet is different from western media's information.

Netizen BaronR said, "If you want to know more about a country you should get the first-hand information by visiting that country, or else you will be forever depended on information of others that could carry certain biased perspective. In China, places like Tibet and Xinjiang are hot topics in the West and information released from the West are based on either incorrect or outdated facts and under most circumstances deliberately misconstrued for political gains".

"The US and British governments are not able to accept that people of other races and other nations can improve their life and even overtake the USA and UK and that is why the US and UK mainstream media are always spewing deliberate lies and fabrications to try to place China in a negative light and to try to give a false negative image of China," said netizen Unconventionalthinker, "On my trips to China, I realized that China has a lot more positive points and the real China seems extremely favorable compared to the negative China that the dishonest and lying and discredited US and UK mainstream media are trying to portray."