[1] The Chinese Cultural Revolution saw his career severely shortened and he was unable to play in any major international tournaments.
After he retired Gao Fengwen went to Yemen in 1974 and then to Burundi in 1977 to teach for several years before returning in 1979 to China, where he took a training course in coaching before being offered the Chinese youth team position.
After successfully achieving this he would then lead the senior team in the Football at the 1988 Summer Olympics for the first time.
While it was an achievement that China took part in their first ever Olympics at the football the tournament was however considered very disappointing and the team was unable to score a single goal.
[3] Gao would also narrowly miss out in leading China to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup after losing to Qatar in the final game in the dying minutes of the game and elimination from the qualifiers.