Lu'an Maotanchang High School fell strangely quiet on Friday. Some 12,000 of its students left the site in an isolated township in east China's Anhui Province for venues where they will sit this weekend's national college entrance exam, or gaokao.
The school is revered for its record in preparing students to sit the gaokao, success in which is seen as a golden ticket to a prestigious university and then hopefully a high-paying job. Parents have raced to secure places at Lu'an Maotanchang for their offspring, and often accompany them through term time, renting lodging near the boarding school.
But Maotanchang is only a small town. In the past decade, the education phenomenon has seen it balloon from a place with 5,000 permanent residents to one crammed with 50,000 people. It is a perfect example of a Chinese locale in which the whole economy revolves around a single school.
Far too small to have its own exam venue, Maotanchang covers an area of 3.5 square km surrounded by hilly terrain. It is 30 km from the nearest city of Lu'an.
Most accompanying parents rent small rooms in 100-square-meter apartments that are separated into 10 compartments. For a five-month semester in one of the tiny sleeping spaces, they each pay 3,500 to 6,000 yuan ($560-960), which is almost as high as the price in downtown Beijing.
Every eatery in Maotanchang bears an auspicious name, such as "intelligent noodles" or "champion soup."
Local shops do a lot of business supplying food to the scholarly hordes. In fact, Maotanchang gained new notoriety when the school was featured on Chinese food documentary series "A Bite of China II."
The episode broadcast on China's Central Television Station focused on parents of Maotanchang High Schoolers racking their brains to prepare nutritious dinners.
It showed hundreds of students pouring to the school gates during breaks to pick up lunch boxes from their moms.
Chen Cheng, a chemistry teacher at Lu'an Maotanchang High School, said that as long as the gaokao exists, the town will continue to operate with this peculiar dynamic.
As examinees left, the town entered a three-month dormancy period. Retailers said they will shut up shop and reopen before the new semester begins in September.