China's 'gaokao' sees record 13 million students take college entrance exams.
A record number of nearly 13 million Chinese students have registered for the country's notoriously difficult college entrance exams, known as "gaokao," which began on Wednesday. The exams are critical for entrance to China's most prestigious universities, and students spend between 60 and 150 minutes on each subject with the exams lasting up to four days. Many students take additional tuition to boost their performance in the exams, but there have also been reports of cheating. This year's exam-takers have spent the bulk of their high-school years under pandemic restrictions, meaning many of their lessons took place online.