Students hang gaokao hopes on prayers to Confucius

High school student Fang Hongrui walked somberly over a 6-meter-long bridge to a statue of Confucius, the Chinese philosopher and educator, to pray for luck before he sits the national college entrance exam on Saturday.

Many believe that walking over the bridge, called the Zhuangyuan Bridge in the Confucian Temple in Beijing, will help them score high marks on a test. Zhuangyuan was the title given to the scholar with the highest score in the Imperial Exams, a system used in ancient China to select candidates for State positions.

Upon reaching the statue, the 19-year-old hung a small red plate on a fence at its base. In four golden characters, the plate reads "Du zhan ao tou", meaning, "To get the highest test score".