STUDENTS BRAVE FLOOD WATERS TO GET TO EXAM

First the coronavirus pandemic, now flooding is upending life across China.

On Wednesday, as the critical “gaokao” college entrance exam began, students in one town clung to tractors with front-end shovels to cross waist-deep water to their test site.

“Don’t worry students! We are coming!” read the caption of a video released by local police of officers ferrying the students across rushing water.

The floods across China’s heartland and south are a blow to the country’s recovery efforts after the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first half of 2020, 119 people died or disappeared in China due to flooding, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.