Vocational school helps shape destinies

However, the bustling scenes at the Lanxiang reception center stand in stark contrast to the soporific atmosphere outside.

Qu Bin, head of enrollment for the school, said: "On a normal day, we see at least 200 visitors, including candidate students and their parents who come to consult us. We never lack students."

With the new school term starting early next month, many students are preparing to start a new life at senior high schools or universities.

This is also a time when many parents of students who failed their senior high school and college entrance examinations wonder about what they can do to change their children's destinies.

Against this backdrop, it is easy to understand why Lanxiang is in hot demand.

Different from Peking University, which has students mainly from urban areas, 85 percent of students at Lanxiang are from rural areas.

The simple but explicit school advertisement appears to have been aimed at the rural population, most of whom have little education－and it is working.

Asked why they chose Lanxiang, almost all students and parents gave the same answer: the ad.

Yang Lianying and her son took a bus for almost three hours from Qiuxian county in Hebei province to the school.

"The advertisement is quite impressive. I think Lanxiang is a big school with great strength," the 46-year-old said.

She plans to send both of her twin sons to the school, although the one that was born first accompanied her this time.

Rong Lanxiang, the school's president, is proud of the ad's message, which he drafted, and which has remained almost unchanged since the school was established in 1984. "Regarding the advertisement, I am an expert," the 54-year-old said.

The school now spends dozens of millions of yuan on advertising.

Lanxiang also differs from Peking University in another respect－the latter never advertises.