How people get into the school

In Beijing you have to own a property in an area for a specified time period (3-5 years) in order to send your child to school. People do not need to live here for their children to send their kids to school. If that wasn't hard enough to do, not everyone is allowed to purchase property wherever you like. It is often determined by who employs you, where you grew up, where you went to school, etc. It makes it difficult to grow beyond your social status enherited by your birth. In the photo is an apartment building where people have purchased small units in dumpy apartments so that they can send their children to the best elementary school in Beijing....and most likely the best elementary school is China