The "Cloud 2025" Rescue Skills Competition started on Sunday in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, with over 300 contestants from four countries participating.
The four-day competition, held at the Shimen Pass scenic spot in Dali, focuses on the increased demands on rescue teams brought about by theorizing popularity of outdoor sports.
The participating countries include China, Nepal, Cambodia, and Laos.
The competition simulates scenarios such as casualty rescue, cliff falls, and ravine entrapment.
It also recreates all the rescue steps, from dispatch and navigation to trace detection and casualty transport.
"For rescue and these kinds of adventure activities, it's my first time, and it's totally amazing for me. And we have seen lots of drones, lights for rescue, and some rescue technologies -- everything. And this is amazing for us," said Sudarshan, president of the Everest Alliance Nepal.
"Our rules in this year's event are inclusive and open -- our rescue techniques, equipment and concepts are all open for sharing. Through this 'firefighting plus sports' model, we hope to bring together domestic and international rescue teams to truly embody our concept of 'Rescue Knows No Borders,'" said Ma Jun, director of the operational training division of the Yunnan Provincial Fire and Rescue Corps.
Since its inception in 2020, the competition has attracted over 60 teams from seven countries.
Int'l outdoor rescue skills competition kicks off in Yunnan
Heavy rains continued to hit central and southern China on Friday, causing multiple rivers to swell beyond warning levels and prompting rescue efforts to save stranded residents.
Shimen County in central China's Hunan Province has entered a critical period for flood control following days of persistent downpours. With a high risk of secondary disasters such as mountain torrents, landslides, and mudslides, local authorities have transferred all trapped residents to safety and imposed traffic controls on affected roads.
Torrential rains also triggered flooding across south China's Guangdong Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and east China's Jiangxi Province. From Thursday to Friday, 15 rivers exceeded warning levels, with the highest water level reaching 1.51 meters above the warning line. Most of these waterways have now receded below their alert levels.
Fangchenggang City, Guangxi, saw the sudden onslaught of continuous heavy rain, which caused severe urban waterlogging across multiple regions. Rising river waters trapped 15 residents in Baisha Village of Gangkou District. Local fire rescue teams rushed to the scene immediately and successfully evacuated all the trapped people in batches to safe areas.
In Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, the Moyang River experienced its second flood peak on Friday morning, hitting 6.82 meters, which was 0.02 meters above the warning level. By Friday noon, the water level had dropped to 6.7 meters. Large and medium-sized reservoirs in Yangjiang have cumulatively intercepted over 100 million cubic meters of floodwater, easing flood control pressure downstream.
The widespread rainfall has also extended to parts of east and north China.
On Friday, heavy to torrential rains hit parts of east China's Anhui, Jiangxi, central China's Hunan, Hubei and southwest China's Sichuan provinces, with extremely heavy rain recorded in some areas of Xiangtan and Changsha in Hunan Province.
According to China's National Meteorological Center (NMC), a new round of heavy rainfall will also start to develop from northwest China's Shaanxi, central China's Henan and Hubei provinces on Saturday.
The NMC continued to issue a blue rainstorm alert on Saturday, marking the 12th consecutive day of rainstorm warnings since May 12.
Flood rescue operations intensify as heavy rain hits multiple regions in China
