Skills competition for top construction workers across China
Shot by Yang Jian and China State Construction. Edited by Yang Jian. Subtitles by Yang Jian.
China's most skillful construction workers took part in a national skills competition in Shanghai on Monday.
The 140 workers in 48 construction teams from across the country showcased their superb tiling skills and grasp of three-dimensional modeling technology during the final contest in Shanghai's Hongqiao area.
The National Construction Industry Vocational Skills Competition was hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and other organizations, and organized by China State Construction.
Tiling plays a key role in the construction and decoration businesses, which cannot be replaced by machines. Excellent tiling techniques are required for the building of urban landmarks, parks and home decoration, said an official with China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corp.
Construction workers give it a go during the national skills competition.
Fifty-eight tilers entered the final competition in Shanghai on Monday. Each of them were required to cover the surface of a concrete wall with tiles into a painting of Shanghai's iconic Oriental Pearl Tower within four hours.
They must analyze the charts, preciously measure and cut each piece of tile and put them on the surface with a deviation of less than one millimeter.
"I'm confident of winning a prize, because I've been working in the business for over two decades, it requires patience and perseverance," said Li Tianbing from southwestern Sichuan Province.
But the winner among the tilers was a local worker Tong Lin, from the eighth corp.
At another competition site, more than 80 top construction engineers stared at computer screens to create three-dimensional models of a construction project with building information modeling (BIM) technology. No winner for this part of the competition was immediately announced since the review process is time-consuming.
Fifty-eight tilers entered the final competition in Shanghai on Monday.
"The BIM technology has helped to effectively improve the construction efficiency, while reducing costs and schedule," said Qian Hongfu, a BIM engineer with the corp. He created the 3D models during construction of multiple local projects, such as the Century Link Mall in the Pudong New Area.
The BIM method has been widely used to build the city's new bridges, tunnels, subways and harbors.
China aims to cultivate a large group of senior craftsmen and highly-skilled workers. President Xi Jinping said the quality of workers is "crucial to the development of a country" and "plays an important role in promoting high-quality economic development."
"The competition is expected to encourage the workers to learn from each other and keep improving their professional skills," said Li Yongming, the Party chief and chairman of the corp.
One of the participants
