When a Teen Scales Everest, It’s More Than Just Money—High-Net-Worth Families Are Killing “Educational Equity”
On May 25, 2025, 17-year-old Li Haorong—a student at Beijing No. 80 Affiliated International Department—summited the North Face of Mount Everest at 6:39 a.m. His achievement immediately captured national headlines. In one sense, we marvel at the personal courage and physical endurance required to conquer the world’s highest peak. Yet Li’s ascent also offers a window into how high-net-worth families in China are leveraging vast resources—time, money, and expert networks—to craft bespoke educational trajectories for their children. In doing so, they further widen the already yawning gap between privileged households and their less-advantaged peers.
Image from: CCTV
A 17-Year-Old’s Everest Triumph: More Than a Personal Feat
Li Haorong is no stranger to extreme-altitude mountaineering. In recent years, he had already scaled Siguniang Mountain (5,025 m), Africa’s Kilimanjaro (5,895 m), and China’s Yuzhu Peak (6,178 m). In October 2024, he became the youngest Chinese male under 18 to reach the summit of Cho Oyu (8,201 m). Li’s Everest expedition lasted 46 days and entailed navigating sub-zero temperatures, oxygen deprivation, and fierce storms. Every step tested not only his physical strength but also his mental resilience.
But raw determination alone wasn’t enough. According to China’s national mountaineering coach Ciren Zaxi, a safe ascent of Everest’s North Face requires at least ¥500,000 (approximately US $70,000) in baseline expenses—permits, logistics, guides, oxygen, and basic supplies. Once high-end gear, specialized training camps, insurance premiums, and teams of safety consultants are added, the total cost can climb far above that figure.
Moreover, Everest permits are fiercely limited: only around 300 climbers can secure a spring-season slot each year. To get chosen, a candidate needs not only exceptional physical fitness but also a well-credentialed support network, a rigorous, months-long conditioning program, and, crucially, the financial backing to underwrite the entire operation. What appears to be an individual quest for glory is, in reality, the product of a large, well-oiled family apparatus dedicated to giving the child an “uncommon life starting point.”
Image from: Weibo
High-Net-Worth Education Spending: An Unmatched Advantage
Li’s Everest accomplishment quickly became fodder for parents and netizens alike: “Imagine how much weight that résumé carries when applying to elite universities,” one Weibo user commented. Others noted that Li’s national-level athletic credentials could hypothetically earn him bonus points on China’s gaokao or even a recommendation-based admission at Peking University or Tsinghua. (So far, Tsinghua’s admissions office has confirmed no special plan exists for such athletes.)
This episode highlights the broader phenomenon of wealthy Chinese families deploying staggering sums to secure opportunities that go far beyond standard academic tutoring or extracurriculars. The 2024 Hurun China High-Net-Worth Family Education Report—surveying 500 ultra-affluent households with an average net worth of ¥26 million (US $3.6 million)—reveals just how vast this gap has become:
Number of Affluent Households: China has about 5.14 million families with net assets over ¥6 million (roughly US $840,000) and 2.08 million families with over ¥10 million (roughly US $1.4 million). Among them, 55,000 families boast net assets exceeding US $30 million.
Geographic Concentration: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou top the list of regions with the highest number of high-net-worth families.
Average Education Expenditure: These families spend an average of ¥5 million (US $700,000) per child on education—nearly seven times the national average household cost to raise a child from birth through a domestic bachelor’s degree (¥680,000, per the 2024 China Childbearing Cost Report). In first–tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, ordinary families usually invest around ¥1.1 million per child; high-net-worth households in those same cities often exceed ¥4.7 million.
In practical terms, a single-year overseas undergraduate education can run over ¥200,000 (US $28,000) in tuition alone. Many affluent parents set up dedicated “education funds” years in advance, earmarking capital for preschool, K–12, and higher education—even postgraduate studies. By contrast, an average Beijing family’s cumulative spending to raise a child from kindergarten through college pales in comparison to what a wealthy household pours into a single year abroad.
Source: 2024 China High Net Worth Individuals' Family Education Report
Beyond Dollars: A Holistic, Long-Term Strategy
High-net-worth families don’t merely open their wallets. They emphasize character education and comprehensive ability development—values that translate into selecting high-impact experiences like Everest expeditions. According to the Hurun survey:
Character Traits Prioritized:
Optimism and Confidence (47%)
Honesty and Integrity (46%)
Creativity and Innovation (43%)
Core Competencies Cultivated:
Leadership and Innovation (each 45%)
Collaboration (44%)
Judgment (43%)
Analytical Thinking (41%)
Preferred Developmental Pathways:
Participation in Social and Public-Service Activities (46%)
On-the-Job Training or Real-World Practicums (43%)
Deep Immersive Travel Experiences (41%)
The goal is to expose children to diverse, real-world challenges—whether climbing a technical mountain route or spending a semester at a top global university—so that they hone resilience, critical judgment, and a broad worldview. In many cases, this requires hiring teams of experts—coaches, tutors, child psychologists, and family-office advisors—to map out multi-year plans that integrate academic, athletic, and character-building milestones. Yet ironically, 36% of these same affluent parents report they can spend face-to-face or video time with their children only one to two times per week, due to career demands. Thus, they compensate by purchasing premium services—boarding schools, global exchange programs, and elite summer camps—to fill the “time gap.”
Source: 2024 China High Net Worth Individuals' Family Education Report
The Educational Equity Conundrum
By the time a 17-year-old has Everest on their résumé, this truly isn’t about the child’s “effort” alone—it’s about lifelong institutional support, deep-pocketed family trust funds, and access to elite networks. In regions like Beijing and Shanghai, high-net-worth households invest approximately 4.3 times more in each child’s education than the average local family; nationally, the ratio is about 7.4 to 1. For the top 25% of these families—those spending over ¥10 million—the gap can reach 15 to 1 or more.
What does this disparity mean?
Starting Line Inequality: Children from privileged backgrounds begin life with a wider array of options—from private international schools to specialized training academies—while hundreds of millions of less affluent students remain subject to local-school quality and underfunded public resources.
Access vs. Merit: As affluent families create bespoke, high-value experiences (like climbing Everest) that carry weight in elite-school admissions, they effectively redefine “merit.” The child who spent years preparing for an ultra-endurance feat suddenly has both a powerful personal narrative and state-level honors—advantages unattainable for the average student.
Long-Term Impact: These investment strategies are not one-off transactions but multi-decade gambits. For example, more than 50% of high-net-worth families expect their children to earn at least a master’s degree (30% aim for a master’s; 24% for a PhD). Only 7% regard a bachelor’s degree as the end game. Nearly 74% are already planning for their child to study overseas, with 40% preferring to send them out as early as high school (average age: 17.6). The destinations? Top Western institutions in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Germany, and Singapore.
Source: 2024 China High Net Worth Individuals' Family Education Report
Conclusion: Redefining “Education” and “Equity”
In decades past, educational success in China tended to be measured by gaokao scores, and later by SAT/ACT results for those targeting foreign universities. Today, the conversation has shifted: It’s no longer enough to excel in exams. Instead, affluent parents are crafting “life portfolios” of experiences—clinical internships at biotech labs, front-row seats at Model UN conferences, and yes, summiting Everest—so that their children stand out in a hypercompetitive global pool.
By showcasing a 17-year-old’s Everest summit, we glimpse a reality in which “killing it” often hinges on a family’s insulation from financial constraints. While Li Haorong’s personal perseverance is admirable, his story also spotlights an urgent question: How can China (and the world) preserve educational equity when extreme, out-of-reach investments become the new baseline? After all, true education should open doors for all, not only those whose families can afford to rewrite the definition of “merit.”