Cui Qingtao signs for the packet containing his acceptance letter from Peking University, July 22, 2018. (Photo/people.cn)
Cui Qingtao, 17, was mixing mortar at a construction site with his parents on Sunday when he received his acceptance letter from Peking University, which is widely regarded as the top university in China.
In this year's gaokao, or China's college entrance examination, the young man from a low-income family scored 669 points and applied to Peking University, where he was accepted as a student in the School of Journalism and Communication.
Cui's home is in a small village in Qujing city, Southwest China's Yunnan province. He is the oldest son, with a younger brother in high school and a sister in the fourth grade.
Cui is an obedient and thoughtful son. To help his family earn more money, he'd spend his vacations getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning to fertilize and water plants in the greenhouses with his brother.
On Sunday, Cui's family was doing construction work at the site of a new home when Cui Yuqing saw a postal van come onto the property. Cui and his parents and sister were excited as they finally received the long-expected acceptance letter.
Cui Yuqing made his parents, neither who went to university, very proud. When his mother read the acceptance letter to his father, who cannot read, a big smile broke out on his father's face.
"You reap what you sow. Now I'm leaving my home village for college, but I'll return and someday change the poor conditions of the village," Cui said.
"His starting point is different from other students, but I hope his future will be bright," an internet user said on Chinese social media site Weibo.
