Three generations of welders forging China's high-speed railway future

From model workers and master craftsmen to factory hands and gig-economy workers, China's vast workforce is the bedrock of national development. Launched by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, this series shines a spotlight on the responsibility and resilience of the modern Chinese working class, documenting their struggles and stories from the front lines to showcase the dedication, craftsmanship and pioneering spirit driving progress across every sector.

Li Wanjun and his apprentices are the "bogie" beneath China's high-speed rail rise. This is a saying in the workshop at CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles — plain words from co-workers, but they capture something real.

In the workshop, welding sparks light up the silhouette of Li, a master welder born in the 1960s, as he stands steadily beside a train bogie. Around him, his apprentice He Yan, born in the 1970s, bends low over a seam, while another, Wang Shangeng, born in the 1980s, studies a robotic welding screen. As sparks fly, the shadows of three generations blend into the silver train body — a scene tempered by time.

From green-skinned trains to Hexie (Harmony) and now Fuxing (Rejuvenation), Li and his apprentices He and Wang have mapped China's rail leap — breaking one bottleneck after another along the way.

In 1987, the 19-year-old Li joined the Changchun Passenger Car Plant, the predecessor of CRRC Changchun. His father, a seven-time plant model worker, wrote to him: "Every job needs someone. Do it well, and that's what makes a man." Li stayed. He practiced through lunch breaks and won the "welding champion" title at plant and city contests in 1997. In 2006, when the Hexie electric multiple unit project landed and foreign partners withheld hands-on craft, he spent over a month in the shop and developed the seven-step ring-welding method. Qualification rate jumped from 68 percent to 99.5 percent, and China's first autonomous high-speed rail welding standard was born. Li said, "One man can only do so much. But together with millions of workers, we make 'made in China' happen."

In 2007, as the Hexie EMU entered mass production and urgently needed large numbers of certified welders, Li became "chief trainer", personally developing nearly 400 in three years. In 2010 his studio was named a national skill-master workshop, later training more than 20,000 welders, tackling more than 150 technical challenges, securing 62 national patents and claiming top honors in nearly 100 welding competitions.

"It is China's high-speed rail that made us," Li said, "giving ordinary industrial workers a stage to shine, to keep innovating and winning, and to live up to our time. To be a front-line worker in this new era — that is something to be proud of."

He, who joined CRRC Changchun in 1998, became Li's apprentice after seeking his help on a circular weld ahead of a 2010 provincial contest. Li told him: "More young people committed to serving the nation through skills — that's how we overtake on the curve." Together they redesigned a bucket-welding-wire system and took first prize at the inaugural China Innovation Methods Competition in 2018, the only front-line worker team among the winners. He said, "We workers can be 'scholar champions' too." On the Fuxing project, launched in 2013, the apprentice worked with Li to develop the "one-gun, three-weld" technique. By the CR450 project, he led a team converting manual weld experience into digital recipes for robots. In April 2025, He received the national model-worker honor — 10 years after Li. "My master is the benchmark in my heart," he said.

"Catching the high-speed rail era, we must use real skill to win respect for China's workers," Li often told the young welders in his studio.

Wang, who left the army and joined CRRC Changchun in 2005, sat in on Li's training class, made the core group and won the 2018 Arc Cup international welding title. "A ranking isn't the goal. Surpassing yourself and serving the country through skill is," he tells rookies.

This spring Wang moved to the robotic-welding post under chief expert Xie Yuanli as CR450 automation passed 90 percent. "Keep the original heart, but to win the future you must also change," he said.

And the torch passed again. In 2021, Ding Jian, a post-90s welder under He, won first place at the Changchun Vocational Skills Competition.

"This road was never easy," Li said, applauding his apprentices as they embrace the new era. "Catching up relies on innovation, and to stay ahead, we must keep innovating."