"Overseas studies: shake up the mind"

Perplexed and painful, Xu started his journey to the US on the last day of 1987. After flying for over 10 hours, he arrived and was brought into a supermarket by a friend.

There he was deeply impressed by the barrels of cheeses and fruits from all over the world, a sharp contrast to what was happening in China.

In 1987, China was experiencing consumer scarcities. Xu only bought a radio set for 20 yuan in Shanghai No. 1 Department Store before he went abroad.

"Frankly speaking, I was not devastated by the difference. I only thought that China has a good system but it is like a shelf: we need to put goods on the shelves."

In a bookstore, Xu also found a lot of books and magazines forbidden in China.

What struck Xu most was what he saw in an Ohio town on the last day of 1987.

In October of the same year, the America stock market experienced Black Monday: stock share prices plummeted. Yet Xu saw no grief and pain in the small town.

"You could still feel the Christmas atmosphere lingering on. There were beautiful decorations in front of every house. I felt like I was entering a wonderland," he said.

Xu majored in music. However, for him, the biggest reward from overseas studies was not in music but in understanding western culture, including language, life style, customs and values.

Yu Minhong: go abroad after secondary school studies

Yu Minhong has established his fame as the founder of the New Oriental English-training school but he himself has never studied abroad.

"It is not exaggerating to say that without New Oriental, the number of Chinese overseas students would be much smaller," Yu said. "New Oriental caters to the needs of Chinese people who wish to study abroad and also advocates this trend."

"Teachers in New Oriental are a group of people who are willing to sense social changes and ride the tides in times of social changes," Yu said. "We realized in the 1980s the historical significance of promoting the trend for overseas studies. This is also the reason why I gave up going abroad and remained in New Oriental."

"You can change your fate through overseas studies; but there is still another way out even if you fail to go abroad." This is the message New Oriental is trying to convey to its students, according to Yu.

Oriental School also encourages students to study in US universities right after they graduate from secondary schools.

"More and more students are going to the US after senior secondary school studies," said Yu. "We believe, in 15 years, the most competitive would be those who complete their undergraduate, graduate and doctorate courses in the US instead of those who go abroad after their undergraduate studies. This is an irreversible trend."

Kids English is also part of New Oriental's training program.

New Oriental used to be mainly composed of undergraduate and graduate students; later on the majority was undergraduates. Now primary and secondary students account for half of the total with the remaining half being college students.

For those who are attending New Oriental courses in order to study abroad, one third are secondary school students.