(Yicai Global) June 7 -- China’s annual National College Entrance Examination, commonly known as gaokao in Chinese, kicked off this morning with a record 10.78 million examinees, 70,000 more than last year.

China has set up as many as 466,000 exam rooms in more than 7,200 test centers this year, with over 1.4 million exam-related staff, including more than 950,000 proctors.

Cities in southern Guangdong, including Guangzhou, the provincial capital, issued special regulations amid recently confirmed Covid-19 cases, including preparing spare rooms and buses with special drivers for examinees with symptoms such as a high temperature.

Students enter a test center in Beijing, as their parents cheer them on.

Mothers and teachers wear ‘qipao’ and hold umbrellas with sunflower patterns outside a test center in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province to wish their children and students success in the exam. The Chinese word for ‘qipao’ alludes to an idiomatic expression meaning “achieving immediate success,” while the one for sunflower alludes to a word meaning “victory.Examinees from Dongguan’s prestigious Humen Foreign Language School wear face masks as they take a bus to go to the test center.

A taxi driver wearing PPE in Guangzhou holds a small flag with ‘College Entrance Examination Instant Victory’ printed on it.

Examinees encourage one another outside a test center in Jiangsu province.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Futura Costaglione