-- The moment of truth has arrived for Chinese authorities, students and parents as the national college entrance exam, also known as the gaokao, began Tuesday after it had been delayed for one month due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

-- Over 10 million students sit this year's national college entrance exam, deemed the most important event for them as it provides a fair opportunity to set the directions for their future careers.

-- The organization of such a large-scale annual gaokao highlights the country's effective regular epidemic control after it had won strategic achievements in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

by Xinhua writers Qiang Lijing, Zhong Qun, Zhao Wanwei, and Yu Pei

BEIJING/WUHAN, July 7 -- The moment of truth has arrived for Chinese authorities, students and parents as the national college entrance exam, also known as the gaokao, began Tuesday after it had been delayed for one month due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Over 10 million students sit this year's national college entrance exam, deemed the most important event for them as it provides a fair opportunity to set the directions for their future careers.

Nationwide, more than 7,000 exam sites have been set up, with around 400,000 examination rooms, while 945,000 people work as invigilators or service providers for the exam.

Examinees enter an exam site in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, July 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

The organization of such a large-scale annual gaokao highlights the country's effective regular epidemic control after it had won strategic achievements in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In Beijing, nearly 50,000 students take the exam this year. A total of 132 schools have been arranged as exam sites in the capital city.

At Beijing No. 12 Middle School in Fengtai District, examinees entered the campus on Tuesday morning before passing through a blue tent, where their body temperatures were checked by an automatic electronic thermometer one by one.