A teenage computing prodigy from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, has won a 250,000 yuan ($42,000) scholarship to Stanford University.

As a gold medalist at the National Olympiad in Informatics (NOI) in 2013, Li Lingxiao, now 18, had a guaranteed place at Tsinghua University, but decided instead to study abroad.

Li told local media he had dreamed of studying at Stanford since junior high school when he devoured a computer book by a Stanford University professor.

"The chance was small," Li said. "But this situation inspired my instinct for adventure and challenge."

Li had always been dedicated to studying science, Li's teacher Liu Yadong told the Global Times.

"He studied hard while taking part in the NOI but he kept a definite aim of studying abroad," Liu said.

When not studying for Stanford last year, Li founded a studio for computer games development with a friend, where he worked 10 hours a day after graduating from Chengdu No.7 High School.

Li's father Li Tong, a newspaper editor, told West China City Daily he fully supported all five of his son's controversial decisions: playing computer games at an early age, abandoning the prestigious NOI contest, not taking the Chinese college entrance exam, founding a games workshop and taking a year off to study for US college tests.

"He has a strong ability to control himself," Li Tong told the Chengdu-based newspaper. "He clearly knew why he played the game."

Li Lingxiao was also admitted to the University of California, Berkeley, but without a scholarship. He got 115 points in the Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and 2,240 points in the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT).