Summer camp programs that put urban children to work for poor rural families have become popular among some parents.

Chen Zhenhong, a Youth League official in Shenzhen's Bao'an district, said the summer camp program, started in 2000, allows urban children to live and work for a week in poor rural areas .

"In Shenzhen, children are not willing to go out during hot summer months. They stay indoors watching TV and playing computer games," said Chen.

"We want to provide an opportunity for them to get in touch with the outside world and do more physical activities."

From July 15 to 21, 34 students from the district spent a week of their summer holiday in Shixia, one of the most impoverished villages in Guangdong province.

"We matched them with 20 rural families, where they worked about two to three hours a day in the fields, harvesting peanuts and cutting weeds," he said. "Host families also assigned domestic chores such as cooking and washing dishes."

In their spare time, the kids were encouraged to get to know local children and some of their leisure activities, such as picking wild flowers and counting stars, he added.

Chen Lirong, a student from a Shenzhen vocational school, said he no longer stays up late at night after the camp.

"During holidays, I slept whenever I wanted to, sometimes, I was still surfing the Internet or playing video games at 3 am," he said.

Chen Lirong pulls the roots of peanut plants out of soil in Shixia village, Guangdong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

When Chen was at the village, he had to go to bed at 9 pm for a good night's rest. Otherwise, barking dogs and a crowing rooster would wake him up in the early morning.

Chen Zhitong, a 14-year-old girl from Shenzhen, said of her experience living and working with a rural family that her palms were full of blisters after her first day harvesting peanuts.

"We had to pull the roots of the peanut plants out of the soil by hand, and once I pulled out a big insect and was frightened out of my wits and fell to the ground," the junior high student said.