Here are the Best China Photos of the Year

The winners of the 2017 edition of the World Press Photo Contest have been revealed, with China’s scenery and photographers alike earning accolades.

The Guangzhou-Urumqi train and pandas (lots of pandas) are among the subjects featured in the award-winning images below:

A Uyghur woman sitting on the train in Kashgar, Xinjiang province, carries her money in her well-traveled stockings.

Taken in June 2016 by photographer Matthieu Paley for a National Geographic story featuring the Guangzhou-Urumqi train, one of the longest train journeys in the world. The above image captured third prize in the ‘Daily Life’ category.

Capturing second place in the same category was a poignant image by Wang Tiejun showing young gymnasts in Xuzhou engaged in “…toe pressure training.”

The photo is entitled ‘Sweat Makes Champions’ and was taken in July 2016, just before other Chinese gymnasts, who have perhaps undergone the same training, left for Rio to compete in the Olympics.

Second prize in the ‘Stories’ section went to Amy Vitale for her vignette, 'Pandas Gone Wild,' part of a larger feature in National Geographic.

Among the most well-known of Earth’s so-called ‘charismatic megafauna,’ pandas are one of the most photographed and studied animals, especially within China. The images are a bellwether of their runaway popularity and undeniable charm.

See China’s 2015 winners here and 2016 winners here.

[Images via World Press Photo]