More than 3,000 students went to Tongzhou High School to take part in this year's national entrance examination, or gaokao, on June 7.

Students got up early in the morning and went to the school canteen for breakfast in the test center. The restaurant provided more varieties of food than usual, including glutinous rice sesame balls, egg tarts and porridge.

In order to avoid traffic jams, police made an extra effort to maintain order, including posting notices cautioning about passing and sounding car horns.

"We worked out a work plan before the examination so as to ensure smooth traffic for the road to the test center," said Huang Min, head of the Tongzhou district traffic police force.

Parents also did their part to help out.

"I'm wearing a red dress today," said Gu Li, a student's mother. "Red means a good start," she added.

Liu Guodong, father of a student taking part in the exam in Tongzhou High School, returned   home with his wife from a visit to Gansu province.

"I want to accompany my son during the examination days," Liu said.

A total of 3,175 students in Nantong's Tongzhou district participated in this year's national entrance examination, which ran from June 7 to June 9.

The numbers taking the exam totaled 3,502 -- 342 fewer than that of last year. There were 111 examination rooms in two test centers in Tongzhou district: Tongzhou High School and Jinsha High School.