China's bourgeoning multibillion-dollar overseas education business has seen another surge in young students traveling to the US for summer camps, and Chinese agencies catering to the demand are no longer the first choice for some parents to get them there. The reason: "quality" and "safety" concerns.

"I hoped my son would spend his summer with American students, rather than hanging out with other Chinese students in Las Vegas or Disneyland, accompanied by Chinese-speaking tour guides," said Judy Wu, a Chinese mother who works as a senior manager in the Beijing office of a US-headquartered IT company.

Two months ago, she applied to relocate to a US office temporarily so her son could go to summer camp in Boston.

On a previous business trip to the US, Wu said she saw too many Chinese students wasting their summer camp time in Chinatown restaurants, on Fifth Avenue or in outlet malls, she said.

More than 100,000 Chinese students flocked to the US this past summer to immerse themselves in American life and culture, according to an article in the New York Times, some of them as young as 10.

It also reported that many Chinese agencies are targeting rich parents and offering them short-term summer experiences costing $5,000 to $15,000 for several weeks in the US.

An increasing number of Chinese families are reevaluating the return on these hefty investments, a discussion that - in part - was triggered by the crash of Asiana Flight 214 in San Francisco in July.

Nearly 70 Chinese students were onboard that flight and three of them died. After the tragedy, one group of students didn't complete their summer camp in the US, going back to China earlier than planned, due to the mismanagement of the travel organizer, according to reports in the Chinese media.

Alice Zhao, a housewife in Silicon Valley, had a busy summer hosting five families from China while their children attended summer camps.

"It has been a trend that more Chinese parents are contacting US summer schools themselves and accompanying their children on the trip," she said.

"I think it's easier for them to get visa approval that way as the US government is looking at the larger economic footprint of having the whole family along," she said.

These Chinese parents tend to choose the full-day programs, which aren't specially designed for international students, but focus on serving the local community, she said.

In the US, many working mothers use full-day summer school programs to help take care of their children during the vacation, she said. At local summer schools, her guests from China pay $2,870 for such programs, which last more than a month.

"The markets - in China or the US - are always quick to respond to the concerns of Chinese parents," said Yang Jie, a Chinese man who is running a summer camp business in Beijing and New York. He said he is considering designing a program for students accompanied by their parents.

Diane Marcus, associate director of marketing at UC Berkeley Summer Sessions, told China Daily that the university vies for more summer camp enrollments from China by promoting its "immersion program", where Chinese students take classes alongside UC-Berkeley students.

chenjia@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 09/06/2013 page11)