30-year-old "Gaokao" continues
2007-06-10 20:54:07
Gaokao, also known as China's annual college entrance exam, starts today. For the next couple of days, 9.5 million students across the country will meet the challenge that will set the course for the rest of their life. This year marks the 30th anniversary since China resumed the test in 1977 after a chaotic 10-year cultural revolution.
Every second is valuable. An hour before the exam starts, students and parents arrive at the site.
Many of the parents will wait until the exam is over. 
This year over 20 percent of the students will be admitted into a four-year college program. Back in 1977, it was only about 5 percent when China resumed the exam after a ten-year break.
Mr. Wang, whose daughter is taking the exam, talked about his experience in 1977. He said, "Back then there wasn't such overwhelming pressure. We all went to take the exam by ourselves. Nowadays there is a much better environment for study. This is the age of knowledge, without knowledge, you can't compete."
In 1977, after the 10 chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution had come to an end, students were admitted to college based on their exam scores, instead of recommendations based on politics and their family background. 
The exam has become one measure to ensure equal opportunity in education.
For a long time after the exam was resumed, a college diploma guaranteed a job. But in recent years, with reforms of schools and a big increase in enrollment, college graduates have faced an uphill battle to find a satisfactory job."
Job fairs these days are filled with graduates, resumes in hand, anxiously searching for a future.
It's estimated that the number of college graduates entering the work force this year will top 6 million. 
Mr. Qi, father of examinee and 1979 examinee, said, "These days there's huge pressure in finding a job. Competition is tough. What you know determines your fate. My kid is taking the college entrance exam, but it's just the first step in the Long March. He might need to go on to get a Master's degree or even a PhD."
A survey by Peking University indicates that last year, nearly a third of graduates in China had no job offer by the time they graduated.
For these high school seniors, today's exam is just the first heat for the next round of competition.
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