From July 7 to 10, a total of 10.71 million candidates are expected to sit this year's annual college entrance exam, or gaokao, up 400,000 from last year. Due to this year's COVID-19 epidemic, rigorous measures have been put in place to ensure safety and fairness. Let's take a look.

Students take part in games during a break from preparing for next month's national college entrance exam. Their school, No 18 Middle School in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, organized the games on June 4 to relieve pressure from studying for the high-stakes examinations. [Photo by Wang Zheng/For China Daily]

Air conditions at test sites:

* The standard test rooms can use either the split air conditioners or central air conditioning, while the quarantine test rooms must only use the split air conditioners.

* Test rooms without air-conditioning facilities can use natural ventilation, electric fans and other methods to improve ventilation. Doors and windows should not be shut completely when using electric fans and ice cubes to cool down the rooms.