Shexian Flooded Gaokao Goes On

by Li Zhuoxi

Early on the morning of July 7， 2020， Shexian County of Huangshan City， Anhui Province suffered a flood unseen in 50 years， leaving the urban area under water and many roads impassable. The gaokao（national college entrance examination）， which was supposed to start that day， had to be postponed to July 9 in the county. When the flood hit， everyone dropped what they were doing to help defend the city， and soon candidates were able to sit for the exam.

Unreachable Exam Rooms

On July 6， the eve of the gaokao， a heavy rain drenched Shexian， a county already dense with waterways.

Fang Yiran， a high-school senior， lives with her grandmother in an apartment on Xinzhou Road five minutes away from the school. At five oclock on the morning of July 7， Fang packed up her test pencils and looked through the window to find a murky lake in front of the building in which she lives. Her 79-year-old grandmother had never faced such a situation and burst into tears， considering the immediacy and importance of getting to the exam.

Fang called her head teacher and then dialed 110 for help as the head teacher instructed. The 110 operator asked her to wait patiently because they were receiving too many similar calls for help. At 8：20 a.m.， a rescue kayak arrived downstairs. During the rescue of Fang and her grandmother， the watercraft picked up two more stranded girls.

At 9：08 a.m.， the kayak reached the school gate. On the first day of the gaokao， it took Fang four hours to make the usual five-minute trip.

“The rain started at three oclock on the morning of July 7，” said Wang Tianping， director of the Shexian County Bureau of Education. “I waded through waistdeep water to the countys Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters for a meeting. When I came out of the meeting，the road was totally impassable. We are continuously asking the test board to postpone the exam by a half hour， but the exams must go on.”

The start time of the Chinese test in Shexian County was postponed from 9 a.m. to 9：30 a.m.， then to 10 a.m.... But the water level did not drop. The rain got even heavier.

At nine oclock that morning， when the gaokao was scheduled to begin， the two test sites of Shexian were supposed to be full， but only 500 or so test takers made it. The rest were blocked by flooding. Approved by the Ministry of Education， the Chinese and mathematics exams in Shexian County scheduled on July 7 were eventually postponed to July 9.

By the evening of July 7， candidates from other parts of the country had already finished the first day of the gaokao. The classrooms in Shexian No. 2 High School were brightly lit. Half of the more than 600 candidates in the school walked into the classrooms to study quietly in the evening.

The schools principal， Pan Jianfeng， patrolled classrooms and patted studentsheads， attempting to cheer them up with humor. “The delay of the gaokao in Shexian County is to ensure the safety of teachers and students. This embodies the‘people-first concept. When we are sure everyone is okay， we can pass the gaokao and every other exam.”

No One Left Behind

The first day of the gaokao was canceled in the county. But could they be sure everyone could make it the next day？

At 5 p.m. on July 7， the Emergency Response Headquarters of Shexian County made the decision to arrange four interchange stations where the flooding was blocking access to the two test sites to transport teachers and students. If the rain persisted on July 8， both test sites would arrange day meals， and candidates who could not get home in the evening would be provided a room in a nearby hotel for free. Xinan Elementary School on a higher ground was set up as a backup test site overnight.

The Shexian Military Division erected floating bridges that night on the deep-water sections leading to the two test sites. At ten oclock on the night of July 7， a two-meterwide and 300-meter-long pontoon began to be built above Chengxu Avenue to reach Shexian No. 2 High School. By two oclock in the morning on July 8， construction of the two pontoons was completed.

The gaokao on July 8 went smoothly. The next day， 2，182 Shexian students turned in the examination.

A total of 2，207 people applied to take the exam in Shexian County Examination District in 2020， of which 2，182 actually sat for the test that day. No one missed it due to the disaster.