The mainland's international schools sector has blossomed over the past decade, fuelled by dramatic economic growth and a surge in the numbers of expatriate workers. It is estimated there are about 70,000 foreign residents in Beijing alone - and the figure predates the influx of people working on this summer's Olympic Games.
Numbers for Shanghai are hard to come by, but some estimates put the total as high as 200,000. With the city due to host the World Expo in 2010, the ranks of overseas residents will undoubtedly swell even further.
But the flourishing economy has not been limited to the biggest cities, and the international community has grown in line with the westward migration of wealth creation. The government has been channelling investment into major infrastructure projects sweeping inland from the affluent coastal areas to as far as the peripheral western provinces.
With moving to China no longer the trip into the 'Wild West' it once was, expatriates are increasingly likely to take their families with them. An early international experience is excellent preparation for life after school in an age of globalisation.
The range of schools on offer varies from the vast to the intimate. Some of the smaller schools have just one class in each year. The largest are huge factory-sized schools with students numbering in their thousands.
The school environment varies widely, and you will need to think seriously about what experience you want your child to have. Do you want your child to go to a school where every teacher knows every student's first name? Bigger schools may not be able to offer that degree of intimacy, but they more than make up for that with their facilities - everything from computing labs to Olympic-sized swimming pools. Larger schools can also offer a wider range of extra-curricular activities and clubs.
One of the biggest and longest-established is the International School of Beijing, set in a spacious campus in the northeast of the capital with truly world-class amenities.