Guangxi Overseas Chinese School: Complete Guide for International Families

Introduction

Guangxi Overseas Chinese School (广西华侨学校) is a public school in Nanning, southern China. It is the first school in China, and the only secondary vocational school in Guangxi, to enrol whole classes of overseas students in a high school diploma programme. It has done so since 2007. Today around 300 international students study there, from more than 20 countries.

This guide is written for families outside China. It explains what the school offers, what it costs, who is eligible, and how the application works. Every number comes from an official Chinese source, and each one is dated. Where the school has not published something, this guide says so plainly instead of guessing.

School at a Glance

Quick Answers

Who Actually Runs This School

This is the most confusing part of the school, and no English-language page has explained it before. Two institutions share one campus, and they are two separate legal entities.

In practice: one campus, one programme, and two names on the paperwork.

A Short History

The school opened in June 1960 under a different name: the Nanning Secondary Supplementary School for Returned Overseas Chinese Students. China set it up, with the personal attention of Premier Zhou Enlai, to help young ethnic Chinese people who were returning to China from abroad. Its first students came from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and India. Many spoke little Chinese. The school’s job was to teach them the language and help them settle.

That original purpose still shapes the school. It took its current name in 2003, and in the same year it opened high school education and founded the private high school described above. Sixty-six years on, it is still teaching Chinese to young people arriving from other countries — the countries have simply changed.

The International High School Programme

This is the school’s flagship offering for foreign families. It began in 2007 and has been running for nineteen years.

The 887 figure is the school’s own, as of March 2026, and covers the high school diploma classes only. Separately, the school says it has trained more than 2,700 international students in total across all of its programmes, and that short courses, teacher training and camps have recorded more than 12,800 attendances.

Students have come from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, South Korea, Yemen, Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, the United States, Italy, France and Côte d’Ivoire. Thailand is currently the largest group: 60 Thai students were enrolled in mid-2026, according to the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Nanning.

How the Three Years Work

The Diploma, and How Graduates Enter University

Two things here often confuse families, so it is worth being precise.

International students do not sit the APT. Chinese students take an academic proficiency test (学业水平考试) on their way to a high school diploma. International students at this school are assessed internally instead. They still receive a Guangxi Education Department-recognised Chinese high school graduation diploma.

That is not a shortcut, because they do not need the APT. The APT matters for students entering Chinese universities through the domestic route. Foreign passport holders do not use that route. They apply as international students, through an application and document review rather than a national entrance exam. The school supports this with “quality student source base” agreements (外国留学生优质生源基地) with Zhejiang University and Huaqiao University.

To be clear about what these students are not doing: they are not sitting the 华侨生联考 or the joint examination for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan students. Those exams are for Chinese nationals with particular residency status. Foreign passport holders take the international student route.

Where Graduates Actually Go

Sources: school’s 2024 vocational education quality report; school announcement, June 2025; Royal Thai Consulate-General in Nanning, June 2026; Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, June 2026.

Read the numbers carefully. The school’s own profile page states that “90% of international students progress to first-class Chinese universities.” That statement carries no date, and the school does not define “first-class.” Two of the universities it lists as examples, Jinan University and Huaqiao University, are not on China’s national Double First-Class list. The school’s own quality report gives 78.26% for the class of 2024. The dated, per-class figures in the table above are the ones to rely on.

Fees

The school publishes one fee schedule for overseas students, in its Overseas Student Study Guide. The school confirmed in August 2026 that these rates remain current.

All figures in RMB per academic year. Exchange rates move, so check the current rate against your own currency.

The RMB 4,000 “other fees” line is unusually inclusive. It covers the application fee, the medical examination, the visa, insurance, bedding and the school uniform. The room fee is for a four-person room.

Scholarships: The Honest Position

Several scholarships appear in older articles about this school. Most of them do not help an international high school applicant today. Here is the current state of each.

The practical conclusion: budget for the full RMB 58,600 a year. If a scholarship comes through, treat it as a bonus rather than part of your plan.

How to Apply

Students of any nationality who have completed junior secondary school. There is no requirement to be of Chinese descent. The school does set a Chinese language bar at entry: you must pass the school’s own Chinese proficiency test, unless you already hold HSK Level 4 with a score of 180 or above, which exempts you.

Note what is not on the list: the school’s published guide does not ask for a police clearance certificate, which many Chinese university applications do require.

Living on Campus

The school confirmed the following about its international student accommodation in August 2026. None of it appears in any published document, so this is the school’s direct description.

International students live in four-person rooms. Each room has a private bathroom and a private balcony. Air conditioning covers the whole building, not only shared areas, and hot water runs 24 hours a day at a constant temperature. Washing machines are on each floor rather than in individual rooms, and each floor also has drinking water and hair dryers. The cost is RMB 4,600 a year.

Beyond the dormitory, the school runs Chinese language classes for new arrivals and pairs international students with Chinese classmates. Its quality report listed 14 student clubs, including an ASEAN song and dance troupe, a music club, a martial arts association, a Hanfu club, an anime club and a ukulele club. Cultural subjects on offer include guzheng, martial arts, poetry recitation, traditional dance, calligraphy, paper-cutting, tea ceremony and bamboo pole dance. The school held Songkran water festival celebrations for international students in 2024, and Spring Festival events in both 2024 and 2025.

Eight Questions to Ask Before You Pay

Some things a family needs to know are not published anywhere — not on the school’s website, not in its official announcements, and not in any government document. We checked twice, with two different research passes. Rather than guess, here is exactly what to ask.

What Chinese Students Study Here

The international programme is one part of a much larger school. For 2026 the school offers 19 vocational majors across three departments, according to its admissions brochure published in April 2026. These classes are taught in Chinese to Chinese students, and are listed here for context rather than as options for foreign applicants.

Two of these majors run in the opposite direction to the international programme. Business Thai and Business Vietnamese have used a “2+1” and “2.5+0.5” model since 2002: students study two or two and a half years in Nanning, then spend six months or a year abroad. Partner institutions are North Bangkok University in Thailand, and Hanoi University of Industry and Hai Phong University in Vietnam. More than 700 students have been sent abroad this way.

The two paths differ in where they end. Business Thai includes a “3+4” class leading to a bachelor’s degree in Thailand. Business Vietnamese leads to a Vietnamese junior college diploma, reached through a six to twelve month preparatory course. The school reports a combined progression and employment rate above 98%, although this figure carries no date.

Credentials Worth Checking

China does not publish rankings of secondary vocational schools, and no English-language ranking of this school exists. Official designations are the closest thing to an independent quality signal, and these can be verified.

Two of its vocational programmes also hold provincial recognition: animation and game production entered Guangxi’s top 50 vocational brand programmes in February 2020, and both that programme and the e-commerce programme group were approved as provincial quality programme projects in July 2023.

How It Compares

The useful comparison here is not with other Nanning schools. It is with other Chinese-curriculum high schools that accept foreign students, wherever they are in China. A family choosing this path is usually choosing between cities.

Within Nanning, the picture is narrow. We checked five local alternatives against official sources. Only one, Harrow Lide High School Nanning, is confirmed as open to students of all nationalities — and it is a very different product: bilingual teaching leading to IGCSE and A-Level, aimed at universities outside China. Nanning No.2 High School runs an AP and dual-diploma international track, and Guangxi University Affiliated Middle School publishes tuition of up to RMB 37,000 a year before boarding, against the RMB 58,600 all-in figure here. Neither publishes confirmation that it accepts foreign passport holders.

For a broader comparison of Chinese-curriculum options, see our guide collection on Chinese national curriculum high schools for foreign students.

Key Terms Explained

Disclosure: Alifa Education Services is an independent education placement consultancy. We may earn a referral fee from partner schools when families enrol, at no extra cost to the family. Our recommendations are based on fit, not fee structure.

Sources

Dormitory details, the diploma and assessment arrangements, and confirmation that the published fees remain current were provided directly by the school in August 2026 and are not published in any document.