I have three close friend (chinese) studying Business PHD, I also know (not really close) three others. Surprisingly, none of them have a GMAT over 740, but they do have other things extrodinary.
they may have at least one of the following charactor: 1. used to research on some special topic that nobody in China cares (i.e. countryside economy) 2. won olympics math gold medals (applied to Stanford Business PHD) 3. have almost perfect undergraduate GPA at one of the famous Chinese university. one of them has 4.0 at Fudan U 4. Have a great communication skills (no broken english) 5. used to work for high level government agency