On the flipside, the number of Chinese students going abroad to study continues to rise. But -- the trend of these students, also known as "sea turtles", returning home after graduation -- is also on the increase.

In 2016, over 540-thousand Chinese students studied abroad, up 4 percent from the year before. Of this number, over a third chose to study business administration. According to China's Ministry of Education, more than 90 percent of Chinese students abroad were self-funded or had their expenses paid by their families, with the remaining funded by the government or their employers.The top 10 destinations -- which included the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia -- accounted for almost 90 percent of Chinese studying abroad.

Trend-wise, the number of Chinese students overseas rose over 36 percent, in the past 5 years. However, the number of students returning to China increased more than 58 percent, in the same period. Over the past 38 years, more than 4.6 million Chinese students had gone abroad for their studies. Good job opportunities and internationally competitive packages are what's luring these students back, cited a private think tank in Beijing.