Full coverage: Premier Li Attends UN Conferences, Visits Canada and Cuba

In the first half of this year, trade between China and Cuba rose by 13 percent to more than $1billion. But this growing economic relationship has been built on the foundation of half a century of solid diplomatic relations.  From cigars and rum to palm-fringed beaches and the romance of Ernest Hemmingway's "The Old Man and the Sea", Cuba means different things to different people.

Cuba was the first Caribbean and Latin Country to establish diplomatic relations with People's Republic of China in 1960.

Since that time, trade and diplomacy have prospered.

China offered crucial support to then-Cuban leader Fidel Castro after the withdrawal of Soviet aid in the 1990s.

Singing the popular Chinese song "The East is Red," President Raul Castro seems to be replicating some elements of China’s path to economic growth.

Last year, China became Cuba's second largest trading partner after Venezuela, with more than two billion dollars in annual trade.

China exports steel, hi-tech products and vehicles,and imports sugar, tobacco and bio-medical products.

President Xi Jinping visited Cuba two years ago and was awarded the order of Jose Marti, Cuba's highest honor, named after a national hero.

And last year in Beijing Cuba’s First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel attended celebrations marking China’s role in defeating Japan during the Second World War.