BEIJING Millions of young Chinese decided not to attend Christmas parties last year. Instead, they spent the festive weekend sitting for a two-day entrance exam for postgraduate courses at national universities.
According to China's Ministry of Education, a record 2 million people registered to take the 2016 graduate school admissions test, up from 1.77 million in 2015 and 1.64 million the year before. The number of graduate school applicants has swelled 56% from a decade ago, when national schools received 1.28 million applications.
