How Competitive Is China's Top Gaokao Province?

The national college entrance exam (Gaokao) has finally ended! The annual "Gaokao summary competition" officially begins now...

The 2024 Gaokao set a historical record with approximately 13.42 million registered candidates (Ministry of Education data as of June 1), while undergraduate admission slots are estimated at only 4.5 million, making it the most challenging Gaokao year in history. Opinions vary on which Chinese province has the most intense Gaokao competition:

"The Hengshui model is just child's play here."

In 2023, two statistics about Henan's Gaokao trended online: 26,375 candidates scored 600+ points, and 149,851 candidates met the first-tier cutoff.

To put this in perspective: Henan's 600+ scorers in 2023 nearly equaled half of Beijing's total Gaokao candidates that year, while Henan's first-tier qualifiers roughly matched the combined total of candidates from Beijing, Shanghai, and Qinghai.

These staggering numbers became what many consider Henan's Gaokao "celebratory announcement"—capitalized CONGRATULATIONS.

However, only local Henan students know: "This ain't it, what's there to congratulate..."

Because Henan has too many candidates—high scorers abound but admission rates are low! For every 100 Gaokao candidates nationwide this year, at least 10 are from Henan. Based on last year's data, only 1-2 of those 10 Henan candidates might make first-tier (without separating vocational, college-to-undergrad, and regular Gaokao streams).

With top-tier high scorers nationally but bottom-tier first-tier admission rates (16% in 2023), Henan candidates' competitive pressure is unimaginable. Seeing those bold "CONGRATULATIONS," Henan graduates who missed Zhengzhou University despite 600+ scores feel the sting anew; current students remain expressionless, silently continuing their test papers...

In Henan, a million candidates must out-compete with even higher scores.

A lasting joke (possibly true) about Henan high schoolers: When elite students from other provinces visited a Henan school and asked, "We start morning reading at 7:00, what about you?", Henan students replied, "We're already in second period."

Here, every high school embodies "Huanggang rigor with Hengshui spirit":

Closed-campus management, 5:30 AM wake-up for reading and drills; 20-minute breakfast while studying; 6 AM to 10 PM classes, collapsing into bed—some sleep fully clothed to save morning minutes. Repeat at dawn—sky-high admission cutoffs hang like Damocles' sword over Henan students.

In Henan, college admits are elites. If you meet a Henan native in university, cherish them—you don't know how many peers they "defeated" to be there: it's common for Henan roommates to outscore others by 100 points.

Thus, Henan's college applications are a "high-stakes gamble." First-choice slots are always full; those who miss targets overwhelmingly choose retakes. Henan's retake numbers lead nationally—recently comprising 30-40% of total candidates. Senior-four/five students re-competing with juniors make Henan's famed "Retakers' Alliance" so intense even Thanos would lose.

Undeniably, Henan candidates' grueling efforts have made their academic prowess nationally renowned, breeding many elite schools across the province:

Zhengzhou No.1 High School, Zhengzhou Foreign Language School, Henan Experimental High School in Zhengzhou; Anyang No.1 High School, Linzhou No.1 High School in Anyang; Nanyang No.1 High School; Dancheng Senior High in Zhoukou; Kaifeng Senior High; Xinyang Senior High... These regionally dominant schools with robust resources produce most of Henan's Tsinghua/Peking admits—all "properly legit."

Being a Henan Gaokao candidate may be "brutal," but their relentless pursuit of knowledge commands respect.

Leaping the dragon gate—this time they'll surely "make it."

Henanese might be China's most exam-enthused and exam-talented people.

Before the 2024 college entrance exams, a high school in Henan set up a fishing pool on the playground for students to catch fish and relieve stress, symbolizing "leaping over the dragon gate and achieving success in one go." Henan people are passionate about "gaokao" (college entrance exams) partly because they firmly believe exams can change their fate, but more importantly, it stems from the history of this ancient heartland of Chinese civilization.

Education here has always been in the spotlight. Historically, Henan has deep ties with "zhuangyuan" (top scholars in imperial exams), which referred to the highest-ranking candidate in the palace examination—a system that began in Luoyang and was formalized in Kaifeng. Over the 1,300-year history of China's imperial examination system, Henan produced countless distinguished scholars, leaving a rich legacy of exam culture.

Of the 500+ zhuangyuan in Chinese history, nearly 50 came from what is now Henan—including brother zhuangyuan (Yang Ping and Yang Ning of the Tang Dynasty, from modern-day Sanmenxia) and father-son zhuangyuan (Zhang Quhua and Zhang Shide of Kaifeng, as well as Ande Yu and An Shouliang of Luoyang).

In the late Qing Dynasty, as China's feudal examination system neared its end, the Henan Provincial Examination Hall played a pivotal role: after the Eight-Nation Alliance burned Beijing's Shuntian Examination Hall, the last two national examinations (1903 and 1904) were held in Henan, until the system was abolished there in 1905.

Beyond its imperial exam legacy, this ancient cultural hub overflowed with intellectual brilliance—two of China's four most renowned academies, Yingtian Academy and Songyang Academy, were in Henan. It also birthed luminaries like Laozi (founder of Daoism), Han Yu (leader of the "Eight Great Prose Masters of Tang and Song"), and Wu Daozi (the "Sage of Painting").

Henan people have always excelled at exams, but today's gaokao pressure also stems from the scarcity of top-tier local universities: missing out on hosting USTC in the 1960s-70s remains a collective regret, leaving Zhengzhou University (Henan's sole 211 Project school) unable to meet the demands of millions of candidates.

Once, Henan University ranked among China's best, but the 1950s academic restructuring scattered its elite departments—either merged into out-of-province schools or spun off as independent colleges—marking the decline of Henan's higher education influence.

Yet it's fair to say: traces of Henan can be found in many prestigious universities across China today.

Now, Henan is striving to ease the gaokao grind: local reports highlight aggressive university construction, with new institutions rising yearly. Ministry of Education data shows 61 new colleges nationwide from June 2022-2023—12 in Henan alone, the highest increase. By June 2023, Henan tied with Jiangsu at 168 colleges, leading China.

Some say every Henan student dreaming of elite schools must buy a ticket away from home. But now, we can believe their futures will brighten—and staying to build their homeland may become easier.

A saying goes: "Henan grows the most wheat for China, yet its gaokao candidates bear the heaviest burden."

As an agricultural powerhouse and one of China's most populous provinces, Henan naturally became the gaokao battleground.

How has Henan fed so many through history?

With terrain sloping west-to-east, basins like Luoyang and Nanyang, and the fertile Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (60% of its land), plus four of China's five major river systems (Yangtze, Yellow, Huai, and Hai), Henan enjoys abundant water for farming.

2022 national data: Henan ranks 2nd in grain (67.9M tons) and vegetable (78.5M tons) output, 3rd in fruit (25.4M tons).

This fertility made Henan an ancient agricultural cradle. Mountains and rivers shaped it into China's demographic core, birthing its oldest urban clusters.

As historic Yuzhou—central plains' heart—Henan boasted half of China's "Eight Ancient Capitals" (Luoyang, Kaifeng, Anyang, Zhengzhou), forming a rare "capital city circle."

Prosperity brought population dividends and enduring cultural pride—from the Simuwu Ding bronze vessel and Kaifeng's Iron Pagoda to the modern-hit Henan TV Spring Festival Gala.

As the "breadbasket province," its cuisine fuels 100M people: spicy soup, Xinyang hot noodles, stewed noodles, fermented noodle soup, fried bread, compressed cakes... These became students' "energy stations," leaving alumni craving a taste of home.

Street vendors chant: "Compressed cakes for kids to ace exams!" This land nourishes 100M, engraving "knowledge changes fate" into their bones—and ultimately making Henan China's most hypercompetitive gaokao battleground.

Henan's cuisine evokes homesickness in countless students who left for exams.

But life is not like exam questions with only one answer—students from any province who stand on the exam stage are proud warriors!

Wishing you success in the college entrance exam as you embrace a new chapter in life!

Cover image | Visual China

"The Culture of Top Scholars in Henan" Central Plains Cultural Protection.2017

"Ranked Second Nationwide! Henan's Total Grain Output Reached 67.894 Million Tons in 2022" Dahe Net.2022

"With the Most Universities Nationwide, Why Is Henan Still Building More?" Jiemian News.2024

"2024 National College Entrance Exam Sees 13.42 Million Candidates" Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China.2024