Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Leticia visit China for the first time from November 11 to 13 – and on November 12 they are received by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It's another indication of the positive relations between the countries, reflected in the remarkable rise of academic exchanges and collaborations.

When CGTN visits the Complutense University of Madrid, Chinese class is already underway. Luckily, Professor Luo Huiling is nice enough to pop out for a chat.

"I've been living in Spain for 15 years because I did my doctorate degrees here,"  says Luo, a professor of Asian Studies.

"The first year that I began to teach Chinese language and culture, I only had six students. Now we have to divide our first year class into two groups because there are 80, and they don't all fit in one classroom!"

Over 30 million people are studying Chinese across the world and in Spain the rise in interest has been significant too.

Lorenzo Ricardo Ramírez Ramos is an Asian languages student who was in China this summer, collecting lifelong memories.

"China?" he says. "Two things: The culture. History. Well, OK, three things – the food."

Alexandra Gica is also a student of Chinese language and culture. "I really like their festivities, like what they do for New Year's, for example," she says.

China speaks Spanish 

Meanwhile in China, close to 35,000 students took up Spanish in 2024, a 20-fold increase since the year 2000.

And since the start of the century, Chinese students studying in Spain have gone from around 500 to over 13,000 in 2022-23 – that's around 26 times as many.

Tian is one of them, studying in Madrid at the Complu, as it's known by students. Ask him what he likes about Spain and he doesn't hesitate to reel off his impressions. 

"La paella, the attitude to time, everything happens two hours later here in Spain, and the center of Madrid is really beautiful, the architecture. I really like it here," he enthuses.

The Complutense University traces its roots back over 700 years and is one of Spain's most prestigious public universities. Last year it jointly launched a research institute with the Renmin University of China where Spanish, Chinese, and international students learn together, and from each other.

Collaboration in education

Across town the Nebrija University of Madrid has been actively engaging with Chinese third-level institutions too.

In fact, it has just opened an institute jointly with Nanjing University, and its rector Montserrat Gomendio Kindelán – once Spanish secretary of state for education – tells CGTN about the synchronicities.

"What we share mainly is the conviction that education in general and in particular higher education is the engine of economic growth, social prosperity, social mobility," she says.

"At Nebrija University we're working really hard to achieve excellence and the same is the case in China now, where a number of universities are appearing increasingly so in the rankings as top universities.

"There's also an interest in some of the challenges or disruptive forces to higher education, like artificial intelligence, the digital revolution, or the green transition. And those are topics where we hope that we can collaborate with China."

AI 'a major disruptive force' 

Gomendio Kindelán sees a need for cooperation on Artificial Intelligence, arguing that while there are fears that AI could be used in the wrong way, equipping students for a new reality is essential.

"AI is a major disruptive force, clearly," she tells CGTN.

"We need to help students to adapt to a very different labor market where many jobs are going to be lost, other jobs are gonna be created that are much more demanding, and we need to prepare students for that new landscape or otherwise it's going to be a real challenge for them.

"I think China is really leading in the sense that it has understood very early on that the implementation of AI through education is the way to develop the talent needed to use AI in the right way."

"So I think there are a lot of things that we can learn from each other."

Visits to educational centers are set to be on the King and Queen of Spain's itinerary during their maiden visit, and the Queen is set to take part in an official event at the Beijing Foreign Studies University promoting the Spanish language.

It's further evidence of an important relationship that continues to grow economically, politically and academically.