(LIU YING)

High school graduates in Shanghai encourage each other before the national college entrance examination on June 7-8.

A total of 9.57 million students sat the exam this year. The Ministry of Education said the admission rate would be 68.7 percent, a 7-percent increase over the previous year.

China established its current college entrance examination system in 1949. After education authorities adopted the strategy to enlarge college enrollment in 1999, the admission rate has constantly reached new heights from around 20 percent in the 1980s and 1990s.