China's robust economic revival combined with a desire for improved standards of living has triggered a quiet revolution in its education system as a boom of foreign schools and programs gathers pace.
Judged to be long on rigour and short on creativity, many Chinese schools are turning to Western methods once looked upon with suspicion, as educators aim to produce more capable and competitive graduates.
Already some 700 Chinese learning institutions, especially along the more developed and wealthy eastern seaboard, have turned to foreign partners such as Britain's prestigious Dulwich College to build more integrated curricula that incorporate traditional Eastern discipline with Western creativity.
In the balance are the great hopes of the Chinese nation - that its future generations will better be prepared to face the complexities of a globalising world and, in the long term, will help return the country to the apex of economic and political might it once claimed 1,000 years ago.
"There used to be some utilitarian thinking among our students and parents when the only aim of attending middle school was to get into university," said Niu Xiaohua, principal of Beijing No 2 Middle School where foreign language, arts, sciences and sports are part of optional course offerings.
"Now we put more emphasis on the students' future development, sustainable development as well as the development of individual character."
For thousands of years the Chinese education system has been characterised by a series of national examinations that, if passed, allowed scholars to catapault to the upper echelons of power as advisors to the emperor.
Passing marks in these gruelling exams meant greatly enhanced social and economic status for the graduate as well as family members, which helps explain the tremendous emphasis Chinese still place on education today.
Yet despite the relative liberalisation of education after the communist party came to power in 1949, the mandarin tradition of holding one make-or-break final test has lived on.
"In China, a single examination paper can decide the future of a child," said one parent surnamed Jia who sent his son to Japan for preparative course work ahead of planned college attendance there.
"He didn't do badly when he was studying at home, but there are too many people in China, and its like millions of young people are vying to pass through a narrow bridge made of a single plank of wood - it's just too hard," Jia said.
China's dreaded college entrance exam is not only the nightmare of every child but of every parent, said Tang Jian, business manager at the British International School in Shanghai, which opened two years ago and caters to some 300 children of the port city's more than 100,000 foreign residents.
"Chinese children have no childhood, there is so much pressure on them and on the parents for this one examination," said Tang.
As a result of this narrow structure, Chinese students are considered by international standards strong on theory but weak on practical application and critical thinking, she said.
"No one will question the rigour or the volume that is given to Chinese students. Nor will anyone question their discipline and their diligence," said Richard Morgan-Sanjurjo, project director at ELI Holdings.
He runs a business consultancy that has pioneered university access courses with the Wales International Consortium to prepare Chinese students for study in Welsh colleges.
"The weakness is there is too much emphasis on rote learning, whereby if you make things less structured Chinese students get a little lost," he said.
"A lot of people think that this system has to change," said Tang, adding that parental exasperation has also led to more households in China to consider international schooling.
The rising number of expatriates in China as well as the willingness of Chinese to spend money on education has led to a boom of overseas schools in leading cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
"If there is one thing that Chinese people place a premium on it's education," Morgan-Sanjurjo said.
But mainland students who want to attend an international institution must first complete the nine-year mandatory national curriculum.
Then, families who are rich enough to hand over 8,000 to 21,000 US dollars a year in tuition fees can send their children to complete an International Baccalaureate (IB) or a college access course beginning at 16 years of age, which can clear the way to university overseas.
While allowing Chinese to study full-time in foreign schools is a sensitive issue that the central government is unlikely to address soon, the current restrictions is not deterring Dulwich College.
For four centuries Dulwich has educated Britain's elite, and based on an eight-year track record of success at its school in Phuket, Thailand, it is establishing four international franchises in China.
Dulwich is not the only Western school looking East.
Twenty-five international schools - American, French, German, Japanese and Singaporean - operate in China, some now for nearly 10 years.
After classes start at Dulwich Shanghai this August, it will also set up a 600-student capacity school in a venture with neighbouring Suzhou city next year.
Chinese will not be able to attend Dulwich full-time there, but will be able to take courses at the school before embarking on IB if they so wish, said Colin Nevin, headmaster of Dulwich Shanghai.
"It was the Suzhou local government who approached us," Nevin said.
China is not about to discard its traditional education methods, said Morgan-Sanjurjo, but "educators want to internationalise their schools".
"By and large, they like their Chinese education, but they want to polish it, so students can flip between different cultures and function in the globalised arena," he said.