Another thing that stops someone from Dong Bei from succeeding is universities like Tsinghua/Beijing have set quotas for each province/area. For example Tsinghu

Another thing that stops someone from Dong Bei from succeeding is universities like Tsinghua/Beijing have set quotas for each province/area. For example Tsinghua has more open seats for the city of Beijing than the entire province of Sichuan. If you're born in Beijing you not only have far higher likelyhood of getting accepted to a top school, but also the Gao Kao is much easier in Beijing than in other provinces.