Thousands of mainland students flock to Hong Kong for SAT exams

The event, organised by Beijing-based New Oriental Education, a company providing study-abroad services, drew thousands of mainland Chinese students seeking to break away from the ultra-competitive Gaokao – China’s own college entrance exam system.

Huge queues stretching several hundred metres wound round corners as concerned parents shuffled to and fro to find out the latest exam times and details for their children.

According to mainland media reports, an estimated 95 per cent of the candidates taking the tests were from mainland China, where SAT test centres are still non-existent.

Tour operators have been quick to cash in on the growing phenomenon in recent years, providing chartered buses shuttling them directly to test centres, hotel rooms and entire tour packages to students and parents, spawning a whole new industry dubbed “exam tourism”.

An exam package trip to the city would cost about 5,000 yuan (HK$6,200), according to the China Daily in a November article.

According to local media reports, from October 2007 to June 2008, up to 7,000 mainland students came to Hong Kong to take the exams. From October 2008 to June 2009, the figure had nearly doubled to more than 15,000.