Feature: Chinese hi-tech goods offer more options for Barcelona residents

In Spain's northeastern resort of Barcelona, more and more locals turned fans of Chinese high-tech device, saying they are more affordable and provide more options.

Here, China's growing presence could be also be felt other aspects of city life, such as economy and culture.

A man called Xavier told Xinhua that Spanish telecom companies are including a growing number of Chinese devices among their products, "because Chinese technology has developed from low- to high-level technology and it is possible to buy a high-tech device at an affordable price."

"I have a Huawei smartphone and I am very happy. Its performance is good, it is fast and it is cheaper than others," he said.

Clara Castillejo agreed. "Chinese products have entered the market with affordable prices when we speak about technology, an area that before was dominated by other countries," she said.

Castillejo also highlighted the impact of Chinese migration on the local economy. "I noticed that local supermarkets and bars are run by Chinese families now and they are full. There is a growing number of small- and medium-sized enterprises run by Chinese families which before belonged to local people," she said.

In this sense, the European Council gave Barcelona's "Xeix" integration project the Diversity Advantage Challenge Award because the project aimed to incorporate the Chinese community into the social life of the city's Fort Pienc neighborhood, where many businesses are run by Chinese families.

Mayra Buxeres, international communications manager at IESE Business School, said that due to the importance of China in the world economy and politics, "we include the Chinese vision in everything we do when we organize an event or a sectorial meeting."

Academic programs have also been influenced as "we have to adapt our programs to Chinese students who come to study and we also have to prepare our students to be successful in China, where many want to succeed nowadays," she said.

Currently there is also a growing interest in learning the Chinese language among Spaniards. Iago, for example, is studying Chinese for practical purposes. "I study Chinese. I could have studied any other language, but it is true that they offer Chinese because of the growing importance of China in the world," he said. Endi