More?and more of the country's most elite students have chosen to study in Hong Kong universities, shaking the traditional dominant position of the mainland leading the annual university recruitment war.

Seventeen zhuangyuan, or students who scored highest on the annual examination in their provinces, regions or municipalities, opted for the University of Hong Kong over mainland institutions, nearly doubling the number from last year, The Beijing News reported yesterday.

Two out of the three students who scored highest in Shanghai will attend the University of Hong Kong, with the other being accepted by Tsinghua University.

All four zhuangyuan in Beijing will receive their higher education in the special administrative region, as top mainland universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University have lost their edge in the competition for the top students.

A Chongqing student, Han Wenbo, who won a gold medal in the National Chemistry Olympiad and ranked in the top 10 in the college-entrance exam, turned down offers from Peking and Tsinghua and selected the University of Hong Kong, the Chongqing Evening News reported.

"I can participate in scientific research earlier in HKU and Hong Kong's mixed culture of East and West will make me more adapted to future overseas study," Han said.

Statistics showed Hong Kong universities attracted almost half of the zhuangyuan in 2010, while back in 2004 Peking and Tsinghua could easily recruit almost all top candidates, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported earlier.

Besides hefty scholarships, high rankings, distinguished faculties and an international environment, Hong Kong universities' education philosophy benefits students' development, the newspaper said.

"The real me never existed in the utilitarian education before," said a mainland student who attended graduate school at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

"I didn't know what I want and what life means."

It was the education he got at the university that made him reborn, the report quoted him as saying.

China should adopt the mode of the United States, education expert Xiong Binqi told The Beijing News. If students can receive offers from several universities and choose one to attend, universities would pay more attention to the education quality to attract better students, he said.