A total of 38,000 examinees in Fujian province took China’s civil servant examination on Nov 24, a record number for the province, and an increase of 4,094 compared with last year. The authorities opened more test centers in the province, and the high number of examinees means that competition is more intense, with more than 7,000 candidates competing for each post – as only about 19,000 of the examinees will be offered a post.

A total of 1.52 million examinees had registered for the test around the country, but officials said that 1.10 million participants took part on Nov 24, as over 380,000 participants had “given up.”

Yuan Yuren, an expert on this examination, said that people abandon the idea of participating due to various reasons, including failure to pay the required fee on time, or losing hope for a successful outcome.

Edited by Wang Yifei and Niva Whyman