The Washington Monument is seen from Capitol Hill in Washington DC. (Photo/Global Times)

Inspired choices?

Learning English is a major task for students on these trips, especially for those organized by English training facilities, however, it's where they visit outside of the classes that make their trips special. The students usually spend half of each day sitting in English language classes and spend the other half visiting tourist spots.

The kids are mostly teenagers, though some end up even younger than 7. The most popular attraction for the student groups is Disneyland, unsurprisingly, while the top universities in Boston and California probably have the highest density of Chinese kids at certain times in the summer. With the Ivy League as a theme, most tour groups bring the children to Harvard, Yale and Princeton, and describe to them the glorious history and extraordinary quality of the universities, trying to sow a seed in the minds of the children to encourage them to come back someday in the future.

While it can't be determined how much inspiration the trips really provide to the young students for their university ambitions still 10 years away, they can receive various other aspects of education during the tailored trips.

Many groups don't just take the students to tourist spots, but also arrange visits to local governments and social organizations to make the trips more meaningful.

In mid-July, a group of Chinese students visited the San Francisco Department of Environment's eco center, where they received an eye-opening lecture by the members of staff. With more than 80 percent of its garbage recycled or deposed, San Francisco leads the way among American cities in terms of recycling.

The lecturers, both locals and ethnic Chinese, told the students the importance of reducing everyday waste and the methods of garbage classification, through prepared slideshows and improvised talks. The training materials specifically targeted the young generation to try to hold their attention.

At the end of the visit, each student received a pencil made from recycled jeans as a gift and was asked to spread the words of environmental protection back home.

But students visiting the US learn about far more than just recycling. Visiting Capitol Hill is like going through a display of the democratic system.

Most visits to Washington DC become lessons about the history of the US and the struggle to secure representative democracy and achieve national unity. And this happens in places other than just DC - during the summer vacation hundreds of Chinese students visited the California State Capitol in the small city of Sacramento, where they were told in detail how both the upper and lower houses of the state legislature work.

Major tourist attractions in the US provide Chinese language materials and some even have Chinese-speaking tour guides, which greatly helps the young students understand these places.

In some cases, the trips also involve a performance aspect. A choir troupe comprised of primary school students from China even performed on stage at the California Disneyland. The organizer of the performance, Joy Chain Education, said the company sends performing troupes to Disneyland every year as part of its cooperation with the theme park. For the children, the precious opportunity of performing at the home of Mickey Mouse is hard earned, as they had to go through a strict selection process at home before they could perform and represent China as "young cultural ambassadors."