Test centers set stage for smooth gaokao

Measures are being taken across the country to ensure that students taking the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, have an appropriate environment for the test that determines university placement for 9.42 million students across China.

The Ministry of Education posted a notice on its website on Thursday requiring education, public security, traffic and health authorities to collaborate to provide a good environment for test-takers during the exam.

"All related departments should be well prepared, in case of any accident, whether it's a natural disaster, violent incident, terrorist attack or disease transmission happening during the exam," the ministry said in the notice.

Overall, about 30,000 more students this year are expected to take the exam, which begins on Sunday.

Henan province, with about 772,000 candidates, ranked first among all the 31 provinces, regions and municipalities in the number of test-takers. Guangdong province, with 754,000 test-takers, came in second.

Beijing will have 68,000 test-takers this year, 2,000 fewer than last year.

To create a quiet environment, urban administrative authorities required construction sites across the capital city to stop work during the evening in recent days. They also will send staff members to patrol examination halls during the test to ensure that there is no noisy construction within 500 meters, authorities said.

To address a series of traffic-related concerns, the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau opened some temporary parking lots for parents driving their children to the exam halls.

"The 33 temporary parking lots will offer about 3,000 places, which means parents around the city can have a total of more than 10,000 parking places during the exam," the bureau said on its website.

Traffic on the first day of the gaokao, which falls on Sunday, will not be so heavy, but on Monday tests-takers should prepare for longer commutes, it said.

"Additionally, temporary traffic control will be implemented at crowded and noisy roads or streets around some examination halls during the listening section of the English test, which will be held on Monday afternoon," authorities said.