China’s bilateral trade with Spain rose to 50.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, up 3.2 percent year-on-year, highlighting strong growth and deepening economic ties between the two countries.
Recent data shows a growing and diversifying trade dynamic, marked by strong momentum across sectors. Spain’s key exports to China include agricultural products such as wine, olive oil, and pork, while China’s exports feature mechanical and electrical goods, alongside advanced new energy equipment.
The China-Europe Railway Express (Yiwu-Madrid), spanning over 13,000 kilometers, continues to play a vital role in facilitating cross-border trade. As the world’s longest railway route, it strengthens logistical connectivity and supports the steady growth of bilateral commerce.
China-Spain trade sees strong momentum with 3.2 pct growth in 2024
Teams attending the 2026 humanoid robot half-marathon are racing to fine-tune every detail before hitting the course on Sunday.
As the world's first humanoid robot marathon, this year's event will see a record 112 teams taking part, including five international teams from countries including Germany, France and Brazil.
Co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal People's Government and China Media Group, the event covers two main categories – autonomous navigation and remote control – with autonomous navigation teams accounting for nearly 40 percent of the total.
One week ago, a full-scale test of the event has already been conducted in Beijing's E-Town Economic and Technological Development Area.
"Really impressive! When I see what they've done in the first marathon that happened last year and what we saw this year, I'm impressed by the advancements that have been made. Last year, some robots had some hard time to just stay standing, but now this year almost every robot is able to stand. And they all focus on performances and that's very exciting," said Etienne, a member of Paris-Saclay University Team.
The 21-kilometer race route covers more than 10 types of terrain including flat ground, slopes, curves, and narrow sections. It features 12 left turns and 10 right turns, including several near-90-degree curves, providing complex environment for robots to test their adaptation and decision-making capabilities.
"This event requires robots to achieve such high mobility autonomously on the course, which poses a significant test of their agility. Even for humans, executing sharp turns under such complex conditions is quite challenging. For robots, this setup further increases the technical difficulty and challenge," said Zhao Mingguo, a researcher at the Department of Automation of Tsinghua University.
Humanoid robots gear up for Beijing half-marathon
