The Shanghai 48th WorldSkills Competition and WorldSkills Museum pavilion stole the limelight this week – attracting a raft of participants and spectators at this year's ongoing 47th WorldSkills competition.

The current competition, being held in the city of Lyon in France, opened on Sept 10 and runs to Sept 15 when the closing ceremony and medal-giving will be held at the famous Groupama Stadium.

Moving forward, the 48th WorldSkills Competition will be held in Shanghai in 2026. 

The WorldSkills Competition is the most prestigious, largest-scale and highest-level international vocational skills competition, often referred to as the "Skills Olympics".

To promote the 2026 competition and the WorldSkills Museum, the booth featured the unique visual identity of the Shanghai WorldSkills Competition. 

This comprised a traditional Chinese sunmao – mortise and tenon structure – as the core design, incorporating bucket arch architectural elements and was highlighted with accents of China red, celebrating the beauty of Chinese craftsmanship. 

The exhibition content was divided into four sections: "Tides of the East," "Masterpieces of Greatness," "Exploring the World" and "Pinnacle of Skills," which told the story of China's skills development.

The "Tides of the East" section – with a welcome display wall and promotional videos – showcased the strength of Shanghai as the next host city and highlighted China's vocational skills development. 

Using big data, Shanghai's charms were presented through indicators such as the economy, trade, transportation, tourism and urban architecture – reflecting Shanghai's capabilities and commitment to hosting the WorldSkills event.

The "Masterpieces of Greatness" section used a 3D timeline to illustrate China's journey since joining the WorldSkills organization, including major events and milestones. 

This section also displayed Shanghai's achievements in preparing for the event, such as building the WorldSkills Museum, organizing large international skills competitions and sending the WorldSkills flag into space.

Though Lyon and Shanghai are over 9,300 kilometers apart, visitors to the Shanghai booth visitors could “travel” to the banks of the Huangpu River. 

The "Exploring the World" section used images and multimedia to immerse visitors in the charms of the WorldSkills Museum located in Shanghai.

In the "Pinnacle of Skills" section – with its theme of Craftsmanship Stories – the advanced techniques behind major Chinese projects were revealed.

These included the first domestically-produced large aircraft C919, the first domestically-produced large cruise ship the Adora Magic City, as well as the Jiaolong manned submersible – independently designed and developed by China.

The booth also featured an interactive intangible cultural heritage area. Other displays of intangible heritage – including woodblock printing, Shanghai woolen needlepoint tapestry, sachet making, paper cutting and Luban locks (a traditional Chinese folk educational toy)– were also widely praised.

Source: WeChat account of "shanghaifabu"