At least 70 percent of the children in Tianjin complain they are not happy during the seven-week summer holidays because they do not have friends in the neighborhood and are still under the pressure of schoolwork.

A recent survey found 23 percent of the students are "not happy at all" during the holidays which will end on Aug. 31, while 53 percent who say life is just "so-so" and 24 percent are happy simply because they do not have to get up early or sit through exams.

The survey, conducted by a group of child psychologists in Tianjin, tracked 200 local primary and junior high school students.

The pressure of schoolwork has continued to haunt the majority of the city children even in holidays: nearly 62 percent of the students say they have to study, either at home or at training centers.

While 12 percent of the respondents have private tutors at home, 73.2 percent have to attend various training courses at their parents' insistence, the survey shows.

Loneliness, boredom and lack of friends also spoil the children's holidays, according to the survey. About 37 percent of the respondents spend the holidays at their grandparents' houses and rarely have the chance even to go out.

Meanwhile, 60 percent of the students say they cannot spend time with friends because they live too far from each other in the big city and their parents, fearful that their only child might get lost during the trip, will not allow them to travel unaccompanied.

Experts say Chinese parents should treat their children as equals, trust them and grant them more freedom to arrange their own time.

"It's an essential part of family education to help children arrange time properly," said Ji Ci, a child psychologist in Tianjin. "To make holidays more colorful and rewarding for children, we should encourage them to gain more social experience, enhance their sense of responsibility, communicate more with others and exercise more." 

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2004)