Hangzhou Foreign Languages School
Hangzhou Foreign Languages School (HFLS) (Chinese: 杭州外国语学校 (simp.)/杭州外國語學校 (trad.)), colloquially referred to as "Hangwai"(杭外), is a grade 7–12 public high school located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Founded in 1964, HFLS is one of the country's first eight foreign language schools, and is one of the country's most prestigious. As stipulated by the Ministry of Education, 20% of the students from each graduating class are exempted from the National Higher Education Entrance Examination and are instead directly admitted into top Chinese universities. In 1963, a shortage of qualified recruits for diplomatic service led the new Chinese government in Beijing to adopt new policies aimed at producing an institutionalized recruitment pool of talented students proficient in foreign languages through primary and secondary education. Hangzhou Foreign Languages School was thus established, together with seven other equivalent foreign language schools in the cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Changchun, Nanjing, Xi'an, Chongqing and Wuhan. In 1964, the middle school division of the HFLS was located on the campus of the Affiliated Middle School Attached to Hangzhou University, known today as Xuejun Middle School; whereas the primary school division was established, located on the campus of Zhejiang Infant Normal School. The latter half of the HFLS had to move around twice before 1966, when the two divisions of the HFLS merged into one single institution located on Zhejiang Infant Normal School's campus. As the Cultural Revolution began that same year, the HFLS stopped recruiting new students, and current students left the school after 1969, with students in the primary school division being transferred to elementary schools nearby and all HFLS's middle school students joining the "Down to the Countryside Movement." The HFLS faculty, with the exception of English teachers, were all told to leave. The school was able to recover and rejuvenate institutionally after the Cultural Revolution ended, and became a grade 7-12 high school.
