Self-Made Millionaire Sits China’s University Exams for 27th Time 

Students leave after their first exam during the first day of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), known as “gaokao”, in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on June 7, 2023. (AFP)
Students leave after their first exam during the first day of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), known as “gaokao”, in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on June 7, 2023. (AFP)
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Self-Made Millionaire Sits China’s University Exams for 27th Time 

Students leave after their first exam during the first day of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), known as “gaokao”, in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on June 7, 2023. (AFP)
Students leave after their first exam during the first day of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), known as “gaokao”, in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on June 7, 2023. (AFP)

Among the millions of fresh-faced high schoolers sitting China's dreaded "gaokao" college entrance exam on Wednesday, Liang Shi sticks out like a sore thumb -- a grey-haired, self-made millionaire stubbornly taking the test for the 27th time.

Liang, 56, is no fool. He worked his way up from a menial job on a factory floor to establishing his own successful construction materials business.

But one dream has always eluded him: getting a high enough score on the notoriously grueling gaokao to study at the top-tier Sichuan University.

To compete with the nearly 13 million high school seniors taking the exam this year, Liang said he has been living "the life of an ascetic monk" for the past few months, rising just after dawn to furiously study textbooks for 12 hours a day.

"It's an uncomfortable thought that I didn't manage to get a college education," Liang told AFP.

"I really want to go to university and become an intellectual."

Over the past four decades, the Sichuan native has taken the gaokao 26 times but has consistently failed to get the required result to send him to his chosen university.

"They call me 'the gaokao holdout'," he said, proudly owning a mocking nickname given to him by local media.

For students, a good gaokao result can decide one's life trajectory, with a degree from an elite university conferring respect, status and better job opportunities.

Liang took the exam for the first time in 1983, when he was only 16.

He kept trying to boost his score for the next decade -- until he had to give up in 1992, as the test at that time was restricted to single people aged under 25.

As soon as those limits were lifted in 2001, Liang's desire for a prestigious college education was rekindled.

He has since taken the gaokao another 16 times, including every year since 2010 -- even when harsh zero-Covid restrictions made taking the exam more challenging than normal.

Online, some have questioned whether his apparent obsession is merely a publicity stunt.

"What for?" Liang retorted.

"No one in their right mind would spend decades taking the gaokao for a stunt."

He had to give up drinking and playing mahjong during the preparation period, he jokingly pointed out.

Liang's quest hasn't got much support from his son, who took the gaokao himself in 2011.

"At first he didn't approve, and now, he's just indifferent," Liang said.

Asked how he would celebrate once the test is over this weekend, he said he was planning to make up for lost fun.

"I'm going to play mahjong with my friends for three days and three nights."



Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
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Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci

Archaeologists working on the shores of Ohrid Lake in Albania are convinced they have uncovered the oldest human settlement built on a European lake, finding evidence of an organized hunting and farming community living up to 8,000 years ago. The team, from Switzerland and Albania, spends hours each day about three meters (9.8 feet) underwater, painstakingly retrieving wooden stilts that supported houses.

The are also collecting bones of domesticated and wild animals, copper objects and ceramics, featuring detailed carvings.

Albert Hafner, from the University of Bern, said similar settlements have been found in Alpine and Mediterranean regions, but the settlements in the village of Lin are half a millennium older, dating back between 6,000 and 8,000 years.

"Because it is under water, the organic material is well-preserved and this allows us to find out what these people have been eating, what they have been planting," Hafner said.

Multiple studies show that Lake Ohrid, shared by North Macedonia and Albania, is the oldest lake in Europe, at over one million years.

The age of the findings is determined through radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, which measures annual growth rings in trees. More than one thousand wood samples have been collected from the site, which may have hosted several hundred people.

It is believed to cover around six hectares, but so far, only about 1% has been excavated after six years of work.

Hafner said findings show that people who lived on the lake helped to spread agriculture and livestock to other parts of Europe.

"They were still doing hunting and collecting things but the stable income for the nutrition was coming from the agriculture," he said.

Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi said it could take decades to fully explore the area.

"(By) the way they had lived, eaten, hunted, fished and by the way the architecture was used to build their settlement we can say they were very smart for that time," Anastasi said.