The overseas education market in China is about as hot as Beijing's summer sun. After China's annual College Entrance Examination in June, thousands of students rushed into China International Exhibition Center to attend the 2009 Beijing International Education Expo.
Zou Xiaoren from Beijing No. 2 High School is just one of them. Hugging an armful of introductory documents and fliers, the 18-year-old pushed her way through the crowd to the exhibition stand of the University of Chicago.
Zou told China.org.cn that she just took the entrance examination and doesn't yet know whether she can go to her ideal colleges. Her family supports her desire to study overseas.
"Some of my classmates have applied for Tsinghua University, Peking University and so on. If I can successfully enter the colleges I dream of, I will stay here and won't go abroad," she said. "If not, my family and I are planning for me to study in U.S. or U.K."
The 2009 Beijing International Education Expo, held from June 13 to 15, is Beijing's biggest education exhibition of the year. Zou said, "I heard there was a big expo on, so I came along to find out more about studying overseas."
Mr. Liang Wen, CEO of China International Education Information Net (CIEIN), predicts that more than 100,000 students and parents will attend this expo. "Many universities have set up information desks: University of London, University of Chicago, Hong Kong University and so forth," he told China.org.cn. "I think people can find out a lot about the different colleges."
According to China's Ministry of Education, almost 180,000 students studied abroad in 2008. Figures from the British Council also showed that visa applications from Chinese students to study in the U.K. in the first six months of 2008 increased 46 percent over the same period in 2007. Liang Wen pointed out that colleges in the U.S. and U.K. are always the first choice for Chinese students who want to study overseas.
