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More than 9.5 million Chinese compete in world’s largest examination
BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua)
Parents in east China were so concerned about a scheduled aircraft flight during their children’s college entrance exam this week that they complained and have had the flight diverted.
The teenagers sitting the nationwide exam in a school close to Huangshan airport, Anhui Province, were among more than 9.5 million Chinese starting the world’s largest examination on Thursday.
The national college entrance examination, or ‘‘gaokao’’ in Chinese, will last for two days for students in 26 provinces, and three or four days in Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Hainan and Jiangsu.
Parents of students sitting the exam less than 10 kilometers from Huangshan airport worried the noise of an aircraft climbing after takeoff during the English test on Friday afternoon could affect the listening comprehension. Rolling Eyes

They complained to the college enrollment office of the local education department. As a result, the city’s airport decided to divert the aircraft. Rolling Eyes

In China, the gaokao is not only a challenge for the candidates,but also affects their families and the whole society. It could change the candidates’ lives in a fiercely competitive society.
The Ministry of Education said earlier that a record 10.1 million people had applied to take the exam this year, and 5.67 million would be able to enter college.
In Beijing, nearly 20 sections of road will have special traffic controls in place during the examination to ensure the students can arrive at venues on time.
The parents will be anxiously sweating out the exam in temperatures expected to exceed 35 degrees Celsius outside the venues.
Xu Chong, the father of a candidate, tried to drive off all thecicadas on the trees outside a school to keep the venue quiet in Xuzhou in east China’s Jiangsu Province. Shocked

Nutritionists are recommending diets that can help students keep energetic, and psychologists offering advice on how to relax.
Zhu Junye, a father waiting outside the No. 35 Middle School indowntown Beijing, said he had reserved a table at a nearby restaurant and a room in a hotel to let his son have lunch and take a rest at noon.
‘‘My son was very nervous in recent days. I don’t want to see hehas so much pressure,’’ Zhu said.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the restoration of the national college entrance examination. Chinese universities stopped enrolling students from 1966 to 1976, due to the politicalturmoil of the Cultural Revolution.
Over the past three decades, almost 60 million Chinese have taken part in gaokao, with 10 million enrolled at universities.
During the 10 years of Cultural Revolution, many young Chinese lost the chance to study. After Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made the decision to restore the gaokao in 1977, about 5.7 million Chinese scrabbled for the 270,000 university places that year.
Chinese like to describe gaokao as ‘‘thousands of troops on a single-log bridge’’ because of the low enrollment rate. For students in rural areas, it’s their only opportunity to leave the poverty-stricken countryside.
Forty-year-old Wen Xinnian, who was born in one of the poorest villages in central China’s Henan Province and now works in a state-owned institution in Beijing, recalled that a flood wiped out almost all the belongings in his family several days before the exam.
‘‘We were so poor that we couldn’t afford the three yuan registration fee for the exam. My mother went out for a whole day to borrow the money,’’ said Wen, who passed the exam and was enrolled at a university in Shanghai.
‘‘Getting into college was the dream of our whole family. Without the gaokao, I would have been a farmer like my brother andlived in a poor village,’’ he added.
Thirty-nine-year-old Cao Xiangfan, who lives in central China’sHunan Province, became famous for his perseverance in the gaokao after many failures. This year is his 13th attempt.
‘‘This is maybe my last time. I just want to realize my dream ofgetting into university,’’ Cao said before the exam.
Zuo Chengyi, an assistant professor in Hunan Normal College, said: ‘‘The gaokao is the threshold that everyone has to pass if hewants to go into college. In today’s China, the gaokao is still the fairest way to select talent, although there are many criticisms of it.’’

Pictures here:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/07/content_6210216.htm