SHANGHAI, June 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The annual national matriculation for examinees from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and other parts of the world started Friday.

    The matriculation included five subjects and will last for three days, an official with the Ministry of Education said.

    The examination site at the Shanghai Normal University has 18 exam classrooms and nearly 50 supervisors, said an official with the Shanghai Municipal Educational Bureau.

    More than 420 overseas Chinese applied for matriculation in Shanghai this year, up 4.9 percent compared with 2004.

    There are slight changes for this year's matriculation. For instance, the full mark for each subject has increased from former 100 points to current 150 points.

    The test paper is printed either in original complex form or simplified Chinese. There are 301 examinees applying for using the simplified Chinese test paper, an increase of 70.49 percent over the figure a year ago.

    About 3,563 applicants from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and foreign countries participated in last year's national matriculation and about one third of them were enrolled by mainland Universities. Enditem