9.39m to sit China's college entrance exam

BEIJING - A total of 9.39 million Chinese students have registered to attend the country's national college entrance examination, the world's largest, which falls on June 7.

The number of participants in the exam increased by 270,000, or three percent more than that of the previous year, according to statistics revealed by the Ministry of Education on Friday.

The ministry said that 28 provinces and regions will for the first time arrange for 56,000 "migrant students," referring to children of migrant workers, to take the exam in the places where they currently reside. Previously, they had to return to their birthplaces, where their household registration is recorded, for the exam.

The number of candidates from rural areas has increased by 260,000 this year, thanks to a set of encouraging government policies.

This year, China's universities will reserve an extra enrollment quota of 8,500 just for rural students.

The exam attracted some nine million participants in 2013. Success on the exam, also know as the "gaokao," is seen by many parents as an important way of changing their children's fate.