The national college entrance examination, or gaokao, which takes place in June in China every year, is considered by many to be the turning point of a student's life. It determines the college they go to and the major they study, helping set up their future career path. One previous gaokao taker, Xiao Xin, is a good example of the role of gaokao, but in a way that you might not expect.

Xiao works for PowerChina Resources Ltd, a company that builds power plants in Belt and Road countries. The 34-year-old is the youngest project manager in the company and now leads a wind power project in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

But this is not the career path that he had in mind, at least not 15 years ago when he took gaokao.

Xiao initially dreamed of studying traffic and transportation at Beijing Jiaotong University — the birthplace of modern China's railway management. But he didn't score high enough in gaokao and was offered a place to study electrical engineering at the university instead. Frustrated, Xiao finally accepted the offer, which — not realizing at that time — opened a new door for his future.

During his undergraduate studies, Xiao gradually developed an interest in his major of electrical engineering. He decided to continue studying it through a master's degree and published various articles. Then, a job opportunity came when China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013.

"At that time, I was job-hunting and thought what I had studied at school would be of great use on the platform of the BRI," said Xiao.

Just like that, he landed his first job as an infrastructure project builder overseas and progressed to running the local company within just ten years.

"Looking back, I can see that every cloud has a silver lining. Never lose heart even if you suffer a setback in gaokao because it's only temporary," he said.

The first project Xiao participated in was the Port Qasim power plant in Pakistan, a major pilot project under the BRI. It is the first implementation project and large-scale electric energy project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Full of ambition, Xiao headed for Pakistan after a three-month orientation for new employees in 2014.But he soon encountered a challenge: the language barrier.

"To be honest, I was confident in my English since I had won several prizes in national English-speaking competitions back in school," said Xiao. But he soon realized that he lacked experience in day-to-day English communication for his work. For example, he had difficulty interpreting legal clauses in contracts and dealing with business negotiations.

As the Chinese saying goes, those who refuse to take the easy path will succeed; those who meet challenges head-on will prevail. So Xiao decided to brush up on his English, returning to a self-study schedule just like the one of high school days.

"Every day, I would recite words and read texts to develop a good sense of the English language," recalled Xiao. After about a month, he was more or less used to the English communication environment in Pakistan. Then, he even started to get a grasp of Pakistan's national language, Urdu, in order to better communicate with the locals.

"Our project is not only about energy and industrial cooperation but also about people-to-people exchanges, especially among young people," he said.

With such perseverance, Xiao and his young team from China, whose average age was 28 at that time, completed the power project in less than three years. The working experience deepened Xiao's understanding of the term "infrastructure giant" — a nickname that internet users gave to China, especially when referring to the country's infrastructure projects overseas.

"Everyone on site had an enormous capacity for hard work, and we shared the same goal. The local colleagues were also infected by our hardworking spirit, actively promoting the project," Xiao said.

Since the Port Qasim power plant began full operations in 2018, Xiao, as a front-line staff member, saw firsthand what the power plant meant for local Pakistani people. He said that only years ago, power outages often resulted in factory or production shutdowns. But now, the new power plant helps people have access to electricity around the clock.

"People can get a fridge or a TV set at home without worrying about damaging the motors due to frequent power outages," Xiao said. "All my local colleagues are just so proud of working in the plant."

For Xiao, this job has brought him a great sense of fulfillment and broadened his horizons.

"Over the years, I have always felt lucky. Not everyone has the opportunity to work out how to make a project grow out of nothing. Besides, I can work with people from different cultural backgrounds," he said. "And I've also got to know how the Belt and Road Initiative works, which makes me very proud of China."