Xia An'an, a young man from Central China's Hubei province who was born deaf, got admitted into Beijing Union University this year. But his story is much more than that.

Some 13 years ago, Xia left his hometown for Wuhan, capital city of Hubei, for a better education. Together with him were his grandparents, who have since been taking care of him.

In a special education school, hearing impaired students including Xia have to work even harder. Being unable to listen to explanations from teachers means putting more effort into blackboard notes, especially in physics and mathematics.

Xia and his 11 classmates have all been admitted to top domestic universities like Beijing Union University.

This university is one of the country's top 12 for disabled students. The exams were conducted one by one inside these universities from late March to early April.

But the exams for Xia and his classmates were not easy. A collection of train tickets, which they used to travel to different cities for the exam, appears thicker than a dictionary.

Huang Rui contributed to this story.