Deng Xiaoping signs autographs for students admitted to colleges through the first resumed college entrance examination in Huangshan, Anhui province, July 1979.

Wang Xiaowang will never forget the day she ran into Deng Xiaoping in Huangshan, East China's Anhui province 35 years ago. "That must be Deng Xiaoping," then then university student said excitedly. Without hesitation, she ran up and greeted him.

Wang considered herself lucky, not only because of her chance encounter with the country's top leader, but also for her life-changing experience of sitting the country's first national college entrance examination in the wake of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

During the "revolution", students were selected based on their political and family background rather than academic performance.

After discussion with experts and education officials during a symposium in 1977, Deng decided that background-based selection had to change. Later that year, the traditional examination based on academics resumed.

The exam was a historic event. There were no limits on the age and educational background of candidates. As a result, about 5.7 million participated. Wang was admitted by Fudan University.

By resuming the national college exam, Deng offered talented students from various backgrounds a chance to shine and laid a solid foundation for China's further development.

He told Chinese people a tenet he had always believed in: one's fate lies in his own hands.