Yali High School, also known as Yali is a senior high school located in Changsha, Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China, or a group of secondary schools containing Yali School itself and several branches. It is a first-tier key school in Hunan's public school system and is one of the most selective schools in the nation. Admission is competitive, based mainly on the score in city-wide or province-wide examinations as well as talent in science, music, sports, and the arts. The school and other three prestigious high schools in Changsha, are recognized "the Famous Four".In 2007, Yali was included in the "Top 100 Schools" list published by the Top One-Hundred Schools website in China. It topped the list of the five schools that made to the top 100 from Hunan Province HistoryFounded in 1906 by Yale-in-China (雅礼协会), the Yali School（雅礼大学堂）was an American-owned private school during the first half of the 20th century and a public school since then. The name Yali 雅礼 (pinyin: Yǎ Lǐ) comes from the Analects of Confucius, meaning elegance of expression (ya 雅) and propriety of conduct (li 礼), and is a transliteration of Yale in the early 20th century. Yali's school colors are blue, white (Yale colors) and red (China).Founding yearsBrownell Gage, Warren Seabury, Lawrence Thurston, and Arthur Williams, all graduates of Yale College in the 1890s, founded Yale-in-China, and brought the mission to Changsha between 1901 and 1905. In 1906, the mission's preparatory school, or the Yali School, began operations. During the same year, Edward H. Hume, M.D., commenced the medical work in Changsha. His experiences are described in his 1946 book Doctors East, Doctors West: An American Physician's Life in China, (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.). In 1912 Yali's first graduates received degrees.