A number of children in Shanghai are losing interest in outdoor play, making worried parents turn to university students majoring in sports to help their children take to the outdoors.

Lin Hao, a junior high school student in Shanghai, seldom left home during the summer holidays. Whenever his mother asked him to go out, Lin would flatly refuse.

Lin's mother, Zhang, started getting worried after he stayed home for one whole week playing computer games and eating fast food delivered to their door. Though he could not remember his own home phone number, Lin could recount the phone numbers of fast food restaurants nearby without a moment's hesitation!

Last week, Zhang visited a tutor-service company and sought out a sports tutor adept at ball games. After several rounds of interviews, Wu Jun, a sophomore at a university near Zhang's home, was hired to accompany Lin to play outdoors for two hours during the weekends.

At first, Lin was unwilling to go out to meet Wu at the appointed time so Zhang had to accompany him to Wu's university and supervise his lessons.

But gradually, Lin became interested in playing basketball with Wu and his classmates.

"Now he is excited and keeps talking about the basketball games with his `big' friends after the class," Zhang said, greatly relieved at the change in her son.

Zhang Mingli, a junior student at a sports college in Shanghai, is busy tutoring four children in swimming and table tennis during the summer holidays.

"We students majoring in physical education are sought after by parents who want sports tutors. We know how to deal with children and also how to protect them from injuries while playing," Zhang said.

Both Wu Jun and Zhang Mingli said that heavy school workloads and the lack of playmates were the key reasons for children shying away from outdoor play.

Zhang Mingli gave the example of her 9-year-old student Lisa. Lisa has a tight schedule for the summer holidays: swimming and doing homework in the morning, taking supplementary classes in the afternoon and learning calligraphy in her spare time.

"I dare not imagine how busy the little girl is when she attends school," Zhang said.

She still remembers Lisa crying and refusing to let her mother leave before her first class was over. Zhang attributed this reluctance to Lisa being "the only child in the family with few friends to play with during the holidays."

On many occasions, Wu accompanied Lin for a walk in the residential quarter in the hope of finding some playmates Lin's age, but to no avail.

"Maybe they are playing PC games alone or studying at home like Lin did before," said Wu.

(China Daily August 23, 2007)