Five years ago, China started building a new football education system including an annual football summer camp to select the best football players in the nation for the top teams.

In Qingdao, east China's Shangdong Province, China's best high school football players are participating in a 10-day competition, a selection process for an annual dream team.

Student-athletes come from across the country. Through a 10-day intensive training and competition, a team will be selected as the best team of the year.

It's a golden opportunity for young talents to catch the attention of professional football clubs and colleges. 

Maiwulamu, from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has been enrolled at the Beijing Sport University for his excellent performance in such football matches. "I started playing football in primary school, and made it all the way to a provincial team. I was a sub at first, then on the main team."

This is the new mechanism that China strives to develop, building a campus competition system as part of compulsory education across the country.

After five years of relentless efforts, China currently has more than 20,000 schools with featured football classes, and the health of children in these schools has improved significantly.

The system is also recruiting reserve players for China's football competitions.

"These children are students from ordinary schools, they can join the club at any time, and they can stay in school until they play in a collegiate league or even on the national team. It's a new, unprecedented mechanism," said Wang Dengfeng, director of the Ministry of Education's Department of Physical, Health and Arts Education.

This new system is drawing attention from the world's leading clubs. FC Bayern Munich is working closely with China in football training and selection of players.

"This year the Chinese team finished third in the Bayern Youth Cup U15 and we can see that change," said Klaus Augenthaler, international youth coach from FC Bayern Munich.

The chance to train with coaches from the world's leading clubs is not so rare now. The training is becoming increasingly common in China's football schools. With continued investment, China is turning the sport into a national one, improving the overall quality of its players as more schools join football education.

China announced it will invest more than 200 million yuan per year in the talent development of on-campus football, and its education. After five years of work, a new system is taking shape which may reshape the sport across China.

For youth football players, there are more chances to play their favorite sport. Having a football class is a common activity for student-athletes in cities such as Shanghai. 

Every summer, these young players fly to Shanghai from across the country to train and compete. All expenses are covered by a national fund.

Since 2014, this new national level mechanism has been overseen by the Chinese Ministry of Education. More was invested in building new football fields in each province.

"Since 2015, we have spent over 21 million yuan to build, rebuild and expand 288 football fields," said Ma Zhiyan, section chief of the Department of Physical, Health and Arts Education in north China's Hebei Province. 

While talented players can join the football clubs, they can also choose to stay in school.

"They can choose to continue to study, become lawyers, judges or scientists who can play football, or they can go to universities to take the professional road, and become an excellent football player with a solid education. We need both kinds of talents," said Wang.

The training of coaches is also underway, according to Ding Qipeng, dean of the Football School of China. Since 2017, over 4,900 teachers and coaches have received training organized by the Chinese Football Association.