Chinese-made cooling products are seeing surging sales in Italy as back-to-back early-season heatwaves across Europe have driven up demand for heat relief.
Italy has been hit by multiple heatwaves since the second half of May, with authorities issuing orange and even red heat alerts across much of the country.
Amid the scorching conditions, Chinese-made cooling products have gained in popularity among Italian consumers on cross-border e-commerce platforms.
Data from an Italian price comparison platform shows a dramatic surge in demand for heat relief products starting in mid-May. According to the platform's "heat management" category, fans were the best-selling products between May 21 and 27, with sales jumping 543 percent from the previous week. The May 21-27 period also saw sales of sunshades rising 117 percent and hiking sandals up 105 percent compared with the week earlier.
Notably, products on Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms performed particularly well.
"We released heat relief products earlier than usual this year, since the heatwave started in mid-May. A look at the numbers showed that our sales in May were roughly five times higher than in March and have surged about 10 times in June so far from March," Yang Dingsheng, head of the Italian merchant operations of AliExpress, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's online global retail platform, told the China Media Group (CMG).
Due to the rising demand, staff at a local warehouse of the Chinese e-commerce platform in Milan have been restocking cooling products, such as tower fans and desk fans, almost daily.
One Milan resident, Federico, told CMG he usually waits until July - when the heat becomes more intense and truly unbearable - to buy summer cooling gear. This year, he made his purchase nearly two months earlier.
"I ran into some problems buying a fan at a physical store. I've found online shopping much more convenient and there's also a much wider selection. You can see a lot more products there," he said.
Industry observers have predicted a continuously growing demand for heat relief products as the sweltering temperatures persist in Italy, with Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms poised to capture an increasing share of the market.
Chinese-made cooling products see surging sales as heatwave grips Italy
This Dragon Boat Festival, tradition met innovation in southwest China's Sichuan Province as humanoid robots from Beijing not only paddled alongside human rowers in dragon boat races but also learned to make glutinous rice cakes and dumplings, infusing the traditional celebration with fresh excitement and new elements.
An "energy relay event" for the upcoming 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games made its second domestic stop in Bazhong, Sichuan Province, where the humanoid robots stepped out of the laboratory and into real-world festive scenes.
At Bazhong's Enyang Dragon Boat Sports Park, a human-robot collaborative boat carried two "Tiangong" robots from the Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics, alongside six young local paddlers. These robotic athletes had undergone more than two weeks of adaptive training, first on Beijing's Shichahai Lake and then on the rivers of Bazhong, learning to sync their mechanical movements with the rhythms of human teamwork.
The robots looked a bit clumsy at first. But after several rounds of fine-tuning, they began to get the hang of it. Their paddle control became increasingly sophisticated, and their coordination with the human crew improved markedly.
To truly test their capabilities, the human racers stopped rowing altogether and let the robots take over entirely. The boat kept moving forward -- slowly but steadily.
Rowing a dragon boat isn't just about swinging arms back and forth. It demands a continuous, rapid sequence of lifting, dipping, pulling, and releasing the oar, which requires strength, timing, and precision. To replicate this, engineers optimized the robots' waist movements, making their motions far more human-like and fluid.
Using similar principles, the robots also joined in the traditional activity of pounding glutinous rice into ciba cakes. It's a true test of their dynamic balance and anti-disturbance capabilities.
The robots even tried their hand at making zongzi, the iconic glutinous rice dumplings of the festival. They rinsed rice and prepared ingredients with their dexterous hands, and by soaking and handling the materials, they achieved a significant breakthrough in water resistance. It's a small step that points toward a much larger future: household robots capable of working safely and effectively in kitchens, bathrooms, and other wet environments.
As the first international sports games dedicated exclusively to humanoid robots, the World Humanoid Robot Games will hold its second edition from August 22 to 26 in Beijing. Featuring more than 30 events, the competition will showcase the latest advancements in embodied intelligence and fine manipulation capabilities.
Robots join human paddlers as Dragon Boat Festival traditions go high-tech
