Every year, nearly 100 students from Hengshui High School in Hebei Province battle fierce competition to win places at China’s top academic institutions like Peking University and Tsinghua University. 

Eighty percent of those who have been accepted by the two universities from Hebei Province graduated from this school. It is renowned for its harsh exam-oriented education system, and dubbed “hell on earth” for students.

For example, the military-style management includes surveillance of all students through cameras inside every classroom. And no cellphones are allowed on campus.

The school's extreme techniques are controversial, but it repeatedly churns out students who are good at taking written exams. 

The “super high school” has now opened a new branch in east China’s Zhejiang Province, welcoming students from across the country. It is intended to have 144 classes with 6,000 students in the future.

But all-around education has been encouraged and promoted nationwide for many years. So is this exam focus welcomed?

A heated debate has been sparked. Some say even though the school is against the mainstream view of education, the desire of thousands of junior high school students to attend proves its value. 

Others say the “Hengshui model” is the epitome of exam-oriented education, which kills student creativity, and should be replaced by education for all-around development, not encouraged.  

In fact, it is not the first time Hengshui High School has expanded its “college entrance exam factory.” In 2015, it opened an experimental high school in China’s southwestern city of Kunming, and a school in China’s east Anhui Province will also be opened later this year.  

Xiao Jiaxing, executive director of the new school in Zhejiang, said comments online about Hengshui High School are exaggerated. “In our eyes, the so-called tough training is an effective and scientific management style, with clear goals and managed into every minute. No other school can do this. ”