BEIJING - Nineteen students from Beijing's Tsinghua University have joined the armed forces this year, making this the largest-ever recruitment of graduates from this prestigious school by the People's Liberation Army.

Graduates or undergraduates from colleges and universities have accounted for nearly 60 percent of the 540 recruits collected by the army from Beijing, according to the conscription authorities.

The Chinese armed forces used to recruit soldiers in winter, but this year, the army has changed the practice and started to do it in summer, in conformity with the recruitment of students by Chinese schools.

Beginning on Sept 5, newly recruited soldiers have begun to bid farewell to their parents and been dispatched to barracks across the country.

In Chongqing municipality, southwest China, 635 new service people have left home to head for Tibet autonomous region, with the company of some psychologists and experienced army veterans who have spent time in Tibet, a mountainous area where newcomers may suffer altitude sickness and psychological problems.

In recent years, the government has adopted a series of favorable policies and measures to encourage young people with a better educational background to serve in the military, which has been armed with an increasing amount of high-tech weapons and equipments.