"Packing Fruit and Catching Fish"... Chinese Parents Pay for Grueling Experiences for Their Children

Employee Experience Programs Gain Popularity During Summer Break in China
Work Experience Opportunities at Major Retailers and Online Platforms
Eating at Company Cafeterias and Wearing Staff Badges

Among middle-class parents in major Chinese cities, sending their elementary school children to camps run by large companies, startups, or focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) has become a popular trend.

On August 27, the Chinese media outlet Daily People (每日人物) highlighted this emerging phenomenon, reporting that "the number of camps offering work experience during summer vacation is increasing."

AI-generated image.

Programs Offering Direct Visits to Companies and Job Experience Are Gaining Popularity

In the past, it was common for children to visit planetariums, museums, or art galleries or to travel during vacation. However, directly experiencing programs at companies themselves has recently become the new trend. The media reports that "dual-income parents are ready to open their wallets to help their kids find jobs that suit their talents," with prices ranging widely from 10 yuan (approximately 2,000 won) to several hundred yuan.

Participation fees vary depending on the company and the specific job. For visits to large corporations, related field trips typically cost between 268 and 468 yuan (approximately 55,000 to 96,000 won) per day or even more. One parent of a fourth-grade elementary school student in Beijing spent 7,980 yuan (about 1.64 million won) to send their child to a 5-day, 4-night camp at Alibaba in Hangzhou.

Programs Differ by Company and Role

Children experiencing Dingdongmychai. Official Dingdongmychai SNS

At the Dingdongmychai camp, an online grocery e-commerce platform, children sort and pack tangerines and experience catching seafood. The Sam's Club camp allows children to work as one-day sample corner salespeople, promoting different products. Some car manufacturers' factory visits even feature screw tightening competitions.

The parent in Beijing mentioned above paid 7,980 yuan (about 1.64 million won) for the 4-night, 5-day camp at Alibaba in Hangzhou, which included activities such as using the company cafeteria, experiencing the workplace atmosphere, and understanding corporate culture. While these are field trips, children also create company nicknames, wear employee badges around their necks, and address each other as "manager" as they role-play major corporate positions such as designer, planner, sales, and operations. However, perhaps because the work is not easy, a 6-year-old who attended the Alibaba camp said, "The food is tasty, but I was so tired and extremely stressed, it was really difficult," adding, "I never want to go to a supermarket again."

Bulk Sales Strategy and Bundled Promotions...Criticism Over Marketing Tactics

Children experiencing at a large supermarket in China. Baidu, China.

One parent, surnamed Zhang, said, "I sent my child to a Sam’s Club ‘Little Promoter’ camp, but most of the time was just spent moving around the sample corners,” adding, “The staff encouraged us to sign up for a membership, and in the end I paid 260 yuan for a store membership.” At Dingdongmychai, parents are also being enticed to join as paid members by offering a 40% discount on their child's participation fee upon subscription.

However, big tech companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are not directly operating these camps. It is mostly private education companies renting corporate spaces or exhibition halls, turning them into commercialized educational products and deploying low-margin, high-volume sales strategies. For example, they bundle five-star hotel accommodation, meals in the Alibaba cafeteria, and visits to high-tech companies into family packages costing around 3,000 yuan (about 610,000 won) per session, with each session accommodating 300 to 500 participants. University students from prestigious schools are often hired as camp leaders to build credibility.

The same pattern applies to high-tech experiences at companies like Unitree Robotics, a Chinese robotics firm. Private education companies charge parents high participation fees under the pretense of “large company tours” as group camps. In response, Unitree even put up a warning sign at their exhibition hall entrance stating, "We do not provide paid tour services." Educational camps on Alibaba’s Hangzhou campus are conducted by private companies that rent the venue. While children dine in the Alibaba building and take photos, they are taught by private education instructors rather than Alibaba employees or executives. In reality, participants get only a taste of “big company atmosphere” without the substance.

For Chinese Dual-Income Parents, "Summer Vacation Becomes a Time of Stress and Financial Burden"

The media reports that for Chinese parents, the long summer holidays and the associated financial outlay bring about significant hardship. Fifteen days of summer daycare classes cost 675 yuan (about 140,000 won). A 7-day camp is about 10,000 yuan (about 2.05 million won), and hiring a private tutor for home lessons is 700–800 yuan (about 140,000–160,000 won) per day, meaning a single summer vacation period can easily cost over 25,000 yuan (about 5.13 million won).

Nevertheless, parents continue to spend, even knowing their children are unlikely to actually learn about AI or similar subjects at these camps. The media analyzed that "many parents view this as a form of 'educational insurance,' hoping to relieve their anxiety that 'what if my child falls behind in the AI era,' and believing that such learning will come in handy someday."

A parent who sent their child to a daycare program costing 3,600 yuan (about 740,000 won) per month confessed, "It's true that my childcare expenses increased during the summer vacation, but in a big city, this is an unavoidable cost." In some households, children attend high-end camps to learn activities such as paddleboarding or horseback riding, costing as much as 40,000 to 50,000 yuan (about 8.22 to 10.27 million won).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.