Nanyang's tourism bureau is inviting students who scored poorly below 300 on the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, to visit 11 select tourism sites in the city for free, China News Service reported Wednesday.

The Henan Province bureau said the policy is meant to cheer up students who didn't do well on the exam, and to advocate the idea that not everyone has to go to college to succeed in life.

Students are required to bring their exam results to the sites to enjoy the "privilege."

But many people say that the bureau is taking advantage of depressed students to market the city, while a majority of students see the policy as rubbing salt into sore wounds, saying that it only reinforces their humiliation.

Still, some proponents say that the tourism sites of ancient elites offer inspiring tales of life experience, which may discourage students from losing faith and guide them to learning the wisdom of their ancestors.

China News Service