China’s AI Summer Camps Tap Into Parents’ Worries
[Fan Yiying](/users/21147/fan-yiying?source=normal_article)and
[Xiao Chuhan](/users/1018784/xiao-chuhan?source=normal_article)
An increasing number of Chinese summer camps promising parents that their children can master AI and become “venture capitalists” within a week, and charging thousands of yuan to do so, have appeared in recent months.
As parents’ fears about their children being left behind in the AI era grow, companies are capitalizing on their anxieties, claiming they can teach kids how to use AI for business and finance in weeklong “study tours” or camps. But these summer programs often offer little more than unqualified instructors and a photo opportunity at a tech company, according to a recent report by domestic media outlet China Newsweek.
The rise of AI camps comes amid a national push to merge AI with education. Released in June, China’s national education plan integrates AI across all educational levels. In 2024, the Ministry of Education also stated that by 2030, AI education must be “basically universal” in primary and secondary schools.
And the market is lucrative. A report by domestic analytics firm Changjiang Securities projected that China’s AI education market will reach 160 billion yuan ($22 billion) by 2027 and nearly 180 billion yuan by 2030.
One Beijing AI study tour company claims it can teach children to “launch an AI startup in six days.” Priced at nearly 13,000 yuan ($2,000), the live-in program covers “AI basics, business skills, and financial thinking.”
“Many college students can’t create a business model template, yet our campers can present one on stage after just six days,” an anonymous company staff member told China Newsweek.
Prices for multi-day AI study camps in Beijing and Shanghai typically start at around 6,000 yuan. Equivalent courses in Hong Kong generally cost more than 10,000 yuan, and overseas courses can cost up to 30,000 yuan.
Official rules require study tour companies to hold three licenses: a business registration, a travel permit, and an educational service certification. But according to China Newsweek, many AI camp organizers are media firms or one-person companies.
A study tour industry insider with 10 years of experience said that STEM camps have overtaken traditional outdoor programs. Her children’s AI camp at the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in the northeastern Heilongjiang province sold out after advertising exclusive access to a chip lab and AI courses.
The insider said, however, that many companies double their prices despite only offering visits to tech organizations, rather than actual coursework. “As long as kids snap a photo at HIT, the trip is deemed ‘meaningful’ (by parents),” she said.
Dong Ling, the mother of a 5-year-old in Shanghai, views AI as a tool. “AI amplifies (children’s) existing strengths,” she told Sixth Tone. “For their generation, AI is their native environment.”
She believes parents’ focus should be on integrating AI into daily learning. “We are entering an era of human-AI collaboration,” she said. “Instead of chasing hype, parents should focus on teaching kids how to use these tools responsibly and creatively in their daily lives.”
Song, the parent of a fifth-grader and a third-grader in the southern city of Guangzhou, told Sixth Tone that she plans to enroll her children in AI camps once they reach middle school. When choosing camps, she says she will prioritize interaction, hands-on experiences, and small classes.
“I hope my kids make diverse friends, learn about others, see their own differences, and gain real knowledge through firsthand experiences (at AI camp),” Song said.
But surging demand has also created a shortage of qualified AI instructors, with many programs relying on hastily trained graduate students or basic programming tutors to lead classes.
Outside first-tier cities, qualified teachers are hard to find, an anonymous edtech recruiter told domestic media. Her company interviewed music and sports majors for an AI course, and ended up hiring a flight attendant. “A few days of training is standard,” she said.
Fu Lin, co-founder of Kaichuangli, an edtech company based in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen dedicated to equipping children with AI literacy and programming skills, said that AI education in China suffers from inconsistent standards. The goal, he said, is to teach children AI as though it is their native language, and not to take shortcuts.
An 11-year-old surnamed Xu told Sixth Tone that she spent five days this July at an AI camp at the tech giant Alibaba’s headquarters in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
Xu toured the corporate campus and participated in hands-on coding sessions. She described how instructors guided students in using Alibaba’s large language model, Qwen, to generate a business plan template for a simulated online store and craft compelling product descriptions on the company’s e-commerce platform Taobao.
“I learned so much that isn’t in our textbooks,” Xu said.
But despite AI’s rapid rise, Song, the mother in Guangzhou, isn’t anxious.
“Some human qualities can’t be replaced,” she said.
Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.
(Header image: A STEM camp in Beijing, June 2026. VCG)