About 9.75 million Chinese students started to take the annual national college entrance examinations, commonly known as gaokao, from Thursday.

　　从周四开始，大约975万中国学生开始参加一年一度的全国高考。

　　The gaokao is widely considered to be the most important exam for Chinese secondary school students. Gaokao results are the main assessment standard for college admissions in China.

　　高考被广泛认为是中国中学生最重要的考试。高考成绩是中国大学录取的主要标准。

　　Here are seven charts to help you understand a little more about the gaokao:

　　这里有7张图表可以帮助你对高考有更多的了解:

      How many students take the gaokao and how many of them are admitted into higher education?

　　有多少学生参加高考，有多少人被高等教育录取?

　　A record of 10.5 million people sat for the gaokao in 2008 but the number has been declining steadily since then. This year 9.75 million students sat the exam, 350,000 more than those who took the exams last year.

　　2008年有创纪录的1050万人参加高考，但从那以后这个数字一直在稳步下降。今年有975万学生参加了高考，比去年多了35万。

　　As noted in the chart, Chinese higher education experienced a decade-long radical expansion of enrollment starting from 1999.

　　如图所示，从1999年开始，中国高等教育经历了长达十年的大规模扩招。

      Do students get equal opportunities to get into top universities in China?

　　在中国，学生是否有平等的机会进入顶尖大学?

　　The university enrollment quota is distributed to each province or provincial-level municipality, such as Beijing and Shanghai. China’s Ministry of Education has been making efforts to raise enrollment quotas for students from less developed central and western parts of the country and those from populous provinces.

　　大学招生名额分配给各省、直辖市，如北京、上海.中国教育部一直在努力提高中西部欠发达地区和人口稠密省份学生的入学名额。

　　This part uses Tsinghua University as an example to show how top universities are slightly shifting their admission quota for rural central and western areas in China to promote education fairness.

　　这部分以清华大学为例，展示了顶尖大学如何微幅调整中西部农村地区的招生名额，以促进教育公平。

　　Tsinghua University was ranked the top 1 Chinese institute in the Asia University Rankings 2018. It ranked 30th in the world this year according to Times Higher Education. Most university rankings place Tsinghua among the best universities in China.

　　清华大学在2018年亚洲大学排名中排名第一。根据《泰晤士报高等教育》(Times Higher Education)的数据，中国今年在全球排名第30位。大多数大学的排名都将清华列为中国最好的大学之一。

　　As shown in the graph, the enrollment quota has been increased slightly from 2011 to 2015 for the five western provincial-level regions – Yunnan, Guangxi, Gansu, Tibet and Guizhou – whose average GDP per capita from 2010 to 2015 ranked the last in China. The five regions are highlighted on the map of China.

　　从图中可以看出，从2011年到2015年，西部五省(云南、广西、甘肃、西藏、贵州)的招生名额略有增加，2010年到2015年，这五个省的人均GDP在全国排名最后。这五个地区在中国地图上是突出的。

　　In addition, starting from this year’s gaokao, sports, math and science competition winners nationwide will no longer get bonus points added to their gaokao results.

　　此外，从今年的高考开始，全国范围内的体育、数学和科学竞赛获胜者将不再获得额外加分。

　　The ministry also canceled extra points for those who are named "provincial-level outstanding students" or those recognized for excellent moral performance.

　　教育部还取消了那些被评为“省级优秀学生”或被认为有良好道德表现的学生的加分。

      The rural central and western regions also enjoyed growing government expenditures, as shown by the data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

　　中国国家统计局的数据显示，中西部农村地区的政府支出也在增长。