In China the annual national college entrance exam is viewed as a life turning point. And, each year, only a few can be singled out from all of the students who take the exam, to enter college, since the limited planned enrolment figure.

But this year will be easier to the examinees. The colleges and universities in China launched a project to enroll more students. That means in the year of 2000, one point eight million students will be admitted to colleges. The figure is half million more than that of last year.

The project will also benefit students living in Western China where high school graduates have rare opportunity to survive the competition. This year, three out of ten examinees in the region will be enrolled.

The new exam method, so called " three plus X", is another good fortune to Chinese students. In Guangdong, Shanxi, Jiling, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces, besides the three compulsory subjects -- Chinese, mathematics and English, students can take one or several subjects more according to their own interests and the majors they apply for.

The new exam method will be realized in another fifteen provinces in the year of 2001. That will give a breathing spell to more Chinese examinees who face the scaring national exam.