To make sure this important occasion goes smoothly, the City of Shenzhen has instituted a noise ban anywhere a gaokao is taking place, while armed Foshan police have been dispatched to examination sites to preserve the peace.

READ: Armed Police to Keep Foshan Gaokao Exams Quiet
From Dancing Grannies 

The gaokao will determine the fate of the students for the rest of their lives, so simply saying that it’s a “big deal” is to omit the colorful metaphors required for the necessary emphasis.

But colorful metaphors were used when gaokao examination applicants arrived to take the test at the Guangzhou Zhixing Middle School only to be applauded by the 60-70 people that lined its entrance. One student said he didn’t feel like “he was alone in fighting this war“.

Summer Hollywood blockbusters may have more hype to them, but the gaokao can be described as nothing less that the pivotal moment these young people have been living for their entire lives. At the Shenzhen Experimental School, teachers could not hold back their emotions as they sent off their students to an uncertain fate.

[Sign above reads: "Class seven of year three high school, you must succeed at the gaokao!"]

Back in Guangzhou at Huanan Normal University, a department store had employees dress up at the examination site to wish the students well.

And hype would be nothing unless there is glamour to accompany it, as these Guangzhou women dressed in dresses and qipao in honor of the occasion:

We wish all the examination applicants well, and hope these young people will be able to unwind after being burdened with so much pressure. However, that also means finally revealing any fatally bad news that may have been kept from the students in order to help them concentrate.

Photo: Southern Daily via Weibo, Shenzhen Traffic Police via Weibo (2), Shenzhen Evening Report via Weibo, Southern Metropolis Daily via Weibo (2)

Duoduo at his book tour stop in Guangzhou. Photo credit: Yangcheng Evening News

We have to hand it to him because perhaps the term “humble” was never in his dictionary. Not only did he bash Mo Yan by saying Duoduo writes better than the literary giant with his pictorial book entitled I Am the Naked Running Brother, but he also announced his ambitions during his son’s Guangzhou book tour to send his fourth-grade son to Tsinghua University when he reaches the age of ten, Yangcheng Evening News reported.

If this plan is realized, Duoduo would become the youngest student to ever enter the top university in China, whose graduates include former premier Zhu Rongji and hundreds of the country’s best and brightest.

The eagle dad has not been short of controversies. He first made international headlines in 2012 when he forced his then four year-old son to run naked in his yellow underwear outside in the snow in New York’s winter, one of the many extreme parenting methods he has since embraced to train his son to be tougher. When interviewed by CNN, he said, ”Like an eagle, I push my child to the limit so he can learn how to fly”.

Duoduo running in New York’s winter. Photo credit: Sina

The same year, the pair also made headlines when he and his son got stranded on Japan’s Mount Fuji at 11,000 feet when trying to climb the 12,388 foot mountain. Despite the failed attempt, Duoduo managed to unfurl a banner which read: “Diaoyu Islands belong to China! I want to land on the Diaoyu Islands!” A year later, at the age of five, Duoduo piloted a light aircraft on his own for 35 minutes because his father wanted him to “become braver by flying a plane and develop his curiosity and desire to explore,” Global Times reported.

This year, Duoduo will be busy travelling to different cities to promote his first book, and preparing for the second, third and fourth books to come. His father claims Duoduo writes every day, and each book is ready for publishing.

Perhaps by the age of 10, we will have a child prodigy at Tsinghua University. But four years from now, Duoduo surely will have had to accomplish more tasks, likely extreme ones, assigned by his dad. In other words, four more years robbed from his childhood.

Duoduo and his dad He Liesheng, aka the Eagle Dad. Photo credit: Sina

Home page image: Yangcheng Evening News