Una madre cinese si mette in ginocchio e archi di fronte a una parete decorata con striscioni e dipinti per le benedizioni per pregare per il suo bambino di avere buona fortuna in
A Chinese mother kneels down and bows in front of a wall decorated with banners and paintings for blessings to pray for her child to have good luck in the upcoming national college entrance exam, also known as gaokao, at Maotanchang High School in Maotanchang town, Liuan city, east Chinas Anhui province, 29 May 2014. From June to August, the small town of Maotanchang in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui is a ghost town. Come the end of August, the town swells from 5, 000 residents to more than 50, 000. Nearly 10, 000 of those are students studying for Chinas notoriously difficult college entrance exam, known as gaokao. The gaokao exam, or high test in Mandarin, is a grueling standardized test that all Chinese students must take if they plan on going to college. The Gaokao lasts for nine hours over the course of two days and tests students in math, science, English, physics, chemistry, geography, history and Chinese. Often, students who do not receive elite scores will go to special schools after graduating high school to study for the Gaokao for the entire year. That is where Maotanchang comes in. Maotanchang Middle School and its sister school, JinAn Middle School, are cram schools that specialize in preparing students for the Gaokao. Classes are so large that teachers use loudspeakers to address students and students undergo nonstop lectures and practice exams every day from 6:10 a.m. to 10:50 p.m., with only two short 30 minute meal breaks and one hour of relaxation time. Teachers have even suggested having scheduled bathroom times for even more efficient classes. Maotanchang has become famous because of a China Youth Daily article that called the town Chinas Largest Gaokao Factory and Gaokao Holy Land. With 80% of students at the two high schools achieving the required grade to enter college, it appears that whatever Maotanchang is doing is working. The influx of 50, 000 people every year (including 20, 000 middle school students and 10, 000 parents) has rais
