At an event celebrating World Youth Skills Day on July 15 in Shanghai, about 100 young people from the city's various districts display to visitors a variety of skills, such as (from left) making steamed stuffed buns, cocktail mixing and artistic carving of turnips and radishes.[Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

The creativity is due to a greater emphasis being placed on vocational education. China has been particularly stressing the importance of it since 2014, hailing it as an indispensable path for young people to achieve self-realization.

From a macro perspective, vocational skills help to cultivate a diversified pool of talent, pass on techniques and skills and promote employment and entrepreneurship, President Xi Jinping said before a national conference on vocational education in Beijing in June 2014.

That same year, the World Youth Skills Day was established by the United Nations to highlight the importance of youth skills development and solve the common problems of unemployment and lack of job opportunities among young people, as well as to create better social and economic conditions for them.

The China team topped the rankings in terms of total medals, gold medals, and overall score at the last World Skills Competition in Russia in 2019, an indication of the significant progress the country has made in developing its technical expertise and manufacturing industries.