Inside the US$4.5 billion business of education tourism, the latest frontier for China’s ‘tiger’ parents
Top overseas universities reporting record numbers of Chinese tourists this summer as more middle-class Chinese parents expose their children to wider academic horizons
Shanghai middle-schooler Chen Mingxuan doesn’t intend to study at Oxford or Cambridge but her visit to the two top British universities this month left a deep impression on her.
“Every house ... has centuries-old stories to tell,” the teenager wrote in her travel diary. “Just touching the stones, the bricks of each house, I can feel the campus’ heartbeat … They hold plenty of stories, of big achievements, great discoveries.”
Mingxuan’s parents organised the trip to give the 15-year-old a taste of British culture but they were not alone – Oxford and Cambridge were crowded with busloads of Chinese tourists.
“I saw groups of Chinese student tourists everywhere,” she said. “When I took pictures, they would enter the frame of my shot.”
Top overseas universities are reporting record numbers of Chinese tourists this summer as more middle-class Chinese “tiger” parents try to expose their children to wider academic horizons.