The Sixth "Racing to Space" Aerospace City Half Marathon was held in Beijing's Aerospace City on Saturday with more than 1,000 participants, most of whom are aerospace professionals and their family members, competing in the race.
The sporting event features competitions for 5K, 10K, and 21K.
"This time I accompanied my husband. He is also an aerospace professional, supporting our country's aerospace industry on the front line all along. Both of us participated in this 5-kilometer race and are very happy to win the finisher's medal," said Wang Siqi, a runner.
"I have been participating in the 5km race since the first edition of the Aerospace City marathon. My performance improved every time. I'm very happy," said Chen Xiaohang, another runner.
The "space-themed" half marathon coincides with China's recent launch of the Shenzhou-23 spaceship and the safe return of the Shenzhou-21 space crew, aiming to encourage the aerospace professionals to take up sports events more actively.
Sixth Aerospace City half marathon held in Beijing
The Caixin Robotics Industry Index (RII) was released at the Inaugural AI High-Quality Development Conference held in Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, on Saturday.
The index, a comprehensive benchmark dedicated to the robotics sector, reached 125.1 last month, up nearly 25 percent from two years ago.
According to Caixin, Beijing topped the city robotics industry index, which measures the share of robotics-related industrial inputs in a city's overall economic inputs.
Nanjing, Xi'an, Hangzhou, and Suzhou also ranked among the top five.
In 2025, China produced more than 770,000 industrial robots and over 18 million service robots, with output expected to continue rising in the years ahead.
The climb of the index comes as robotics has been elevated in China's national planning, underscoring the sector's growing role in industrial transformation and future economic strategy, according to Wang Zhe, senior economist with the Caixin Insight, the compiler of the index.
"The robotics industry was mentioned in both the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), and the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) . Over the past five years, this industry has fully developed. From these two plans, we can see that the position of this sector has been upgraded. Five years ago, robots were just part of manufacturing upgrades, but now and looking ahead to the next five years, robotics, alongside many other emerging industries, is poised to grow into a pillar industry for China," said Wang.
Climb of robot industry index point to industrial growth
