Zhou Xiaozhou said it would have been almost impossible for her to win a gold medal in a national chemistry contest without the school's lab.

The 17-year-old spent her summer vacation last year in the new chemistry lab at Tianjin Nankai High School doing experiments that are hard to carry out in an ordinary middle school lab.

Last year, Zhou was one of the gold medal winners at the National Chemistry Olympiad, a leading contest for middle school students.