More than 500,000 Chinese will take the national civil-servant enrollment examination on Nov. 26 to vie for 10,282 positions in the organs of the central authorities.

The number of participants this year is much higher over 2004, when around 310,000 took the examination.

An official with the Ministry of Personnel, organizer of the examination, said removal of the residence hurdle this year is a major factor for the big increase in participation.

"The positions are open to all contenders this year, regardless of which regions they are from," he said.

In the past, lots of the positions used to be limited to people with registered permanent residence in Beijing. The practice, presumably to ease pressure on accommodation capability of the Chinese capital city, had aroused public outcry, with some calling it "region-based discrimination".

Analysts say that the policy shift conforms with the "equality" principle and will help enhance the quality of China's civil servants.

Forty-eight people contend for one position in this year's examination on the average, as against the ratio of 37 to one in 2004, making it "the most difficult examination in China" at present.

The hottest five positions this year are with the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the State Commission for Population and Family Planning, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. They are each sought by more than 1,000 contenders.

Participants in this year's examination must have had college education and born between Oct. 15, 1969 and Oct. 15, 1987.

Xiao Bin, a politics professor with prestigious Sun Yat-sen University in south China's Guangdong Province, said the enthusiasm to join the civil servant force stems from three major factors: authority associated with such jobs, stability of the career and worship of public office in traditional Chinese culture.

The salary level of Chinese civil servants, meanwhile, is considered at the medium-level. It stands at around 3,000 yuan per month in Beijing and Shanghai.

China, which launched the civil-servant enrollment examination in 1994, has since helped more than 800,000 people find work in public offices.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2005)