The following year, he successfully passed a test for high-level Chinese, a rare feat for foreigners back then.
Kuehnel also chose Chinese as a subject of his thesis on linguistics after he returned to Germany in 1998.
During his time in Shan-dong, he met a Chinese woman, Gai Wenqing, whom he married in 2006. After several years in Germany, the couple returned to China in 2010 and have since lived in Beijing.
For Kuehnel, who easily gets bored of routine, China can be a good place to live, he says.
But it's more than just that for him.
He is following in the footsteps of many other foreigners who are coming to China for career development as the country's relevance in world affairs grows.
As an expert on cross-cultural communication, Kuehnel pays close attention to related issues and says he is impressed by Chinese efforts in cooperating with other countries in the field.
"Chinese don't regard themselves as laggards anymore, and instead of mimicking the West, they are taking a more confident approach," he says of cultural exchanges with foreigners.
But biases still exist in communication between China and Western countries, he says, recalling interesting incidents from his own life.
He often gets into arguments with his German friends while discussing China. While his friends criticize him for "favoring" China because he lives here, he tells them they are actually "biased" because they have never been or lived in China, and their perceptions largely depend on Western media.
"It's a pity that many Westerners have no idea about China's past and especially the life of its common people," Kuehnel says. "Without knowing that, you can't possibly understand the Chinese way of thinking."
Last year, Kuehnel was invited by Chinese government officials to give recommendations on issues concerning the country's development.
He suggested that China should reshape its international image by fostering creativity.
While he is mostly busy teaching, Kuehnel has managed to translate a number of books from German to Chinese and vice versa.
He has also played an important role in boosting a student exchange program between Beijing Foreign Studies University and his former university in Germany.
As tenure with the German Academic Exchange Service ends later in the year, Kuehnel says it is time for him to plan for the future.
"I will either stay in China or keep close ties with the country," he says, adding that he hopes to make greater contributions to Sino-German cultural and linguistic exchanges.
