China is unrecognisable from the days when emperors ruled the country, but little has changed for those who want to enter the mainland's labyrinthine bureaucracy. Passing the annual test for the civil service remains as formidably difficult as it was when it was known as the Imperial Examination.
In ancient times, candidates might have been confined in a cubicle for up to 72 hours while being assessed on their knowledge of the Confucian classics. These days the civil service exam lasts for a morning and the questions are more likely to be on how to protect the environment and pressing social problems. But the sheer number of people taking it means the pass rate is even lower than in imperial times. Almost one million sat the exam last November in 44 cities across the mainland, according to Xinhua. They were vying for just 15,000 positions in the civil service, meaning they had a one in 67 chance of passing.
With those fearsome odds, would-be government workers are turning to specialist schools to improve their chances. In recent years, the number of institutions on the mainland offering coaching for the civil service exam has increased dramatically. There are now about 20 in Beijing alone, charging fees of up to 3,000 yuan (HK$3,407) for a course of prepping.
'More and more schools are opening because of the popularity of the civil service with students,' says Liu Jingshan, founder of the Beijing Jingshan Civil Worker Test Training Centre.
A former professor of Chinese philosophy at Heilongjiang University and a one-time instructor at the Central Party School in Harbin, Liu opened his training centre in 2005. Operating out of an office block in Haidian district, where many of Beijing's universities are located, he has seen a sharp rise in the number of people applying to take his courses.
'We had more students this year than ever before. The main reason is that there are so many graduates now and not enough jobs for them,' says Liu.
