A student reads review materials outside Chenjinglun High School in Beijing as China’s national college entrance examinations begin Tuesday. Photo: Zhang Ruixue/Caixin

A security guard inspects a student’s identification outside the Chenjinglun High School testing site. Photo: Zhang Ruixue/Caixin

Students leave the Chenjinglun High School testing site, just some of the record 11.93 million students who applied to take this year’s gaokao. Photo: Zhang Ruixue/Caixin

Students queue to pass through security checks Tuesday outside a testing room at a school in Dushan county, Southwest China’s Guizhou province. Photo: VCG

Students take the exam Tuesday at a testing point in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu province. Photo: VCG

An examination room set up for Covid-19 patients in a ward in Sanya Central Hospital in South China’s Hainan province Monday. Photo: VCG

Parents peer in at their children from behind a fence at a testing site in Changchun, Northeast China’s Jilin province Tuesday. Photo: VCG

A woman prays for her child Tuesday outside the Chenjinglun High School testing site in Beijing. Photo: VCG

Parents carrying flowers prepare to receive an examinee Tuesday in Zhengzhou, Central China’s Henan province. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Students walk to the Henan Experimental High School testing site in Zhengzhou on Tuesday morning. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin