Friday arrived with heavy rain here in Beijing as the first day of the 2013 national college entrance exam starts across China.
But examinees seemed confident about the upcoming challenge.
"I think I will be accepted by my ideal university. My ideal university is Xi'an Jiaotong University."
"I am confident because I have been preparing for a long time. My teacher and classmates also helped a lot. My ideal university is Peking University."
ome 9-million students are sitting this year's gaokao nationwide.
That's a 30-thousand drop from 2012.
It is the fifth consecutive drop in recent years.
Analysts say it is due to a lower birth rate, as well as more students now seeking overseas educations.
Xiong Bingqi, vice President of the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, says the enrolment rate is expected to be expanded as a result.
"30-thousand fewer examinees, plus a larger number of students will be admitted to colleges. In addition, some students will give up the chance even after being admitted. So an 80 percent enrolment rate may be expected this year compared to last year's 75 percent."
On the other hand, this year's gaokao marks the first time that children of migrant workers are allowed to sit the exam where they live, instead of having to go back to the place they are registered.
Some 20 provinces have introduced the new policy, benefiting thousands of high schools students across the country.
Zhang Lu is one of them.
"I'm so excited that I don't have to go back to where I was born to take the exam, that saved me a lot of trouble."
However, major cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong have so far failed to give their blessing to the changes.
A man surnamed Guan living in Beijing complained.
"We don't have a local household registration, that's why we have to send our daughter back to our hometown for senior school despite she had being going to school for 9 years here. We have nothing to do. We have being expecting the policy for so many years, but it hasn't come true yet."
The new gaokao rules were initiated in 2012 as a major effort by the central government to provide equal rights in education opportunities for migrant worker's children.
But it has triggered a heated debate as some argue that the major cities are already overloaded and cannot handle more newcomers.
Experts say it will take time to strike a balance.
For CRI, I'm Chen Mei.
