Seeing the sights 'en Espana'

Barcelona, Spain:

Courtesy of a recent Huawei-sponsored trip to Barcelona, one of the Worlds's leading tourist, economic, trade fair and cultural centres, the Catalan-based city, also home to World leading Football Club-Barcelona proved unforgettable in many ways.

Barcelona recently hosted a global sporting spectacle with the Round of 16 second leg of the UEFA Champions League at the famous Camp Nou Stadium which the home team won 3-1.

Football excellence

The iconic Stadium, considered a cathedral of football excellence hosted a little short of its maximum crowd capacity of 99,264 persons.

Besides its super football club status, Barcelona is also the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain, and the second most populated city in the country with a population of 1.6 million.

Its urban area extends beyond administrative city limits with a population of 4.7 million people.

The city finds itself among the seventh most populous urban areas in the world, trailing Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area, Berlin, and Milan, respectively.

Barcelona's major attractions include the Ramblas (city centre) less than a half mile away, Sagrada Familia, a large Roman Catholic church designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, and Casa Batilo, a renowned building also erected as one of his masterpieces in 1905.

Construction on the church hasn't stopped since then and as a tourist attraction, it pulls some four million visitors annually. Eighty five per cent of entrance fees go towards funding construction while 15 per cent is paid for by "sinners" seeking a place in heaven.

The city has a Mediterranean climate, with mild, humid winters and warm dry summers.

Our trip sponsors, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong.

It is considered the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, having overtaken Ericsson in 2012.