Students walk out the campus of a high school in Nanjing after sitting the national college entrance exam on June 9, 2016. (Photo/Chinanews.com)
(ECNS) -- After approximately 9.4 million students took the Gaokao, China's national college entrance exam which ended on June 9 this year, cram schools, travel agencies, and driving schools across the country have been seeing their businesses thrive, despite lingering anxiety among college candidates and their parents.
In particular, remediation programs at cram schools are wildly popular among students who refuse to go to a common four-year school in the hope of making another attempt for a spot at a prestigious university, as well as among those who give up their opportunity to go to a three-year college.
Once they get the exam results, the students decide on whether they should enroll at a school that focuses on preparing students for the next college entrance exam.
An admission officer surnamed Zhang at a well-known cram school said more than 10 such classes would be opened this year. Students would end up enrolling in either a basic, improvement or excellence class based on their scores from this year's college entrance exam, but all students would pay the same tuition and accommodation fees, totaling about 70,000 yuan ($11,000) a year, Zhang said.
Students who sign up for the program now would enjoy a deduction of 10,000 yuan, it was added. In addition, the school has opened an experience course. For a fee of just 50 yuan, students get a 10-day full-time experience at the school and are required to pay no extra fees for accommodation.
Another admission officer surnamed Hao said their school had been running the gaokao remediation program for almost two decades, while in recent years the admission rate to China's key universities had been boosted to more than 50 percent.
The school required tuition and related fees totaling more than 60,000 yuan a year, Hao said, adding that one-on-one courses and special arrangements were also available for students who needed extra help, although they required a higher fee of up to 300,000 yuan a year.
For other students who needed a rewarding and relaxing time following the gaokao, overseas trips are a popular choice.
Xu Xiaolei, the chief brand officer of Aoyou.com, an online-booking site under China Youth Travel Service, said the number of gaokao students booking overseas travel services rose by 10 to 20 percent each summer.
Most of the students favored destinations such as South Korea, Singapore, Japan and Southeast Asian countries, as well as China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
A person in charge of tourism services at travel agency Caissa said the number of students heading overseas for summer vacation would peak every year after the gaokao, and the most popular destinations included Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Europe and North America.
This year, Caissa launched itineraries that included overseas study tours, cruise trips, and trips focusing on a theme, such as Japanese animation or South Korean pop culture.
For students who had been dreaming of driving their first car, driving schools across the country rolled out special promotions targeting gaokao students.
A manager surnamed Li at a driving school in Nanchang in Jiangxi Province said more than 100 students, attracted by various fee reduction offers, signed up for a course within a week of the exams.
They could also get a driving license in as soon as 45 days thanks to a green channel specially opened for gaokao students, Li noted.
A person with a driving school in Beijing's Haidian district said students who applied for the school's summer course in a groups of five or more only needed to pay 3,400 yuan each, nearly 1,000 yuan lower than the original price.
