Gaokao, China's national college entrance examination, kicked off on Tuesday.

The number of applicants for this year's Gaokao has reached a record high, with 11.93 million applicants, an increase of 1.15 million from 2021, according to the Ministry of Education. There are 330,000 general examination rooms and 1.02 million invigilators and examination personnel nationwide.

Due to the previous epidemic prevention and control situation, Gaokao in Shanghai was postponed until July 7 and will run until July 9.

The rooms will be disinfected after each subject examination to ensure students' safety.

Beijing has set up special test centers to serve students in areas at risk of COVID-19. At the same time, standby test centers have been set up along with regular test centers. If the regular test centers are temporarily closed due to the epidemic, the education department will inform the students to switch to the standbys.

To ensure that candidates attend the exam smoothly, the public security, traffic and other departments have made every effort. In Beijing, the authorities have organized 600 buses to pick up students who live in at-risk areas.

Noise is also strictly controlled in many places to help ensure the students perform at their best during the examination. Construction sites, restaurants and cultural and entertainment venues and some urban areas have been given noise restrictions to create a quiet environment for the students.