Race for medals heats up on last day of 47th WorldSkills Competition

At the final day of the 47th WorldSkills Competition in the French city of Lyon, the race for medals heated up, with participants from roughly 70 nations showing their mettle.

Formerly known as the International Vocational Training Organization, WorldSkills is an international charity, which organizes national championships for vocational skills. Every two years, the organization hosts a competition, attracting competitors from around the world.

This year's competition ran from Wednesday to Saturday, with the closing ceremony on Sunday. The event brought together approximately 1,400 participants from nearly 70 countries and regions to compete in 59 skill categories spanning vocations ranging from artwork to welding.

China sent 68 participants to participated in 59 different disciplines.

Teams say it is a collaborative environment, but winning gold can help make their professional career's sparkle.

"I think it's for their career, for the whole of their life. And then they can join this field and they can have a very good start of their journey, their life," said Zou Ningxin, a jewelry expert of Team China.

Medals may be up for the grabs but the goal of the biannual Workskills Expo is also for crowds here to draw inspiration.

This event is designed to give people a little taste of different parts of the working world and what ingredients are needed to be successful in a chosen career.

The expo also gives delegations the opportunity to learn from one another.

"They're able to come here and see how they match up against other countries. It's a benchmarking system as well as an individual assessment of the competitors who are representing their nation," said Shawna Bourke, director of Marketing and Communications of the WorldSkills International.

This biannual event is seen as an opportunity to try and address shared problems like water pollution.

"Urban water sewage treatment and industrial water reuse are the fundamental ways to solve this problem. So water technology is very important today," said Wang Zhan, water technology expert of Team China.

Several days of tough competition culminates in a medal ceremony. And the hope is that these competitors will inspire a new generation of skilled workers to come out of the woodwork.

Shanghai is scheduled to play host to the competition's 48th edition in September 2026.

Race for medals heats up on last day of 47th WorldSkills Competition

Two roads leading to Medog County, nestled deep within the Himalayas of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, have fulfilled the long-held aspirations of its local community.

At a relatively low average elevation of 1,200 meters, Medog in the city of Nyingchi, was once the last county in China without permanent road access. The place has much more moisture in its air than other place in the region, fostering year-round frost, rain, snow and heavy fog.

Facing the tough geography and climate, China's outstanding engineers, however, build roads through mountains and bridges over rivers. They also bored a 3-kilometer-long tunnel facing the magnificent, snow-capped Galongla Mountain, and set up long sections of shed tunnels to shelter their road from frequent avalanches.

The Medog Highway, the first highway leading to Medog with a total length of 117 kilometers, opened to traffic in October 2013 after more than 50 years of sincere efforts, connecting the county with Zhamog Township of Bomi County in Nyingchi.

According to statistics, since its opening, the highway has endured 652 continuous heavy rainfalls, 265 heavy snowfalls, 258 slope and subgrade collapses, 394 mudslides and 71 avalanches. Therefore, efforts to upgrade the highway have never stopped over the past decade.

In October 2022, construction of a second highway was completed. The second passageway to Medog is a 67.22-km highway connecting Pad Township in the city of Nyingchi and Medog County.

After the new highway was opened to traffic, the length of the road connecting the city proper of Nyingchi and Medog County was shortened to 180 kilometers from 346 kilometers, cutting travel time to four hours, and it only takes three hours to drive to Nyingchi Mainling Airport from Medog.

New roads leading to Medog realize Xizang's long-held dreams