Pinning hope on a good education

Such a reaction is hardly surprising because in China, the onus is often put on the eldest child from a poor household to help change the family's fate by getting higher education.

"I feel happy and excited, because I think my son will not live such a hard life as mine," says Cui Maorong.

Cui's family is certainly poor and dependent on government subsidies to supplement their own meager incomes. His parents have done all sorts of part-time jobs, from construction to agriculture, to raise their three children.

The family of five still don't make enough money though, and often run up debts just to make ends meet.

"We are too busy making ends meet to spare energy on supervising the children's studies," says Cui's mother Xu Shulan.

According to Xu, Cui Qingtao and his siblings are very disciplined about their studies.

Cui scored 669 points in this year's national college entrance examination and will be admitted to Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication.