Pushy Chinese parents scale walls, ‘deliver’ themselves via couriers into universities to ‘inspire’ children into studying

Pushy Chinese parents seeking to inspire their teenage children into academic success are taking desperate measures to visit universities for day trips during the summer months – including ‘delivering themselves’ into campuses via courier services.

A family of four was caught trying to gain entry into Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University by huddling together in the back of a tiny delivery van, it emerged last week.

The mother said she had paid 20 yuan (£2.30) to the driver of the van, where they hid in a space less then two metres wide.

The family were trying to avoid huge queues which can start to develop at China’s top universities from around 2am.

Chinese parents are increasingly desperate to give their children a glimpse of the country’s top academic institutions in the hope that they will be motivated to buckle down at school.

Tsinghua University has enforced a 6,000-a-day cap on the amount of people who can visit as a rising tide of tourists – mainly families with teenage children – descend on the campus.

Security officials at Xiamen University, which is in the south-eastern Fujian province, have raised concerns about visitors attempting to gain access to the campus illegally during the holidays.

"We have carried out a series of security measures, but many tourists still try to enter the campus for a tour by climbing over the walls and trees, and even through hidden tunnels," the university’s head of security said, according to the Xiamen Daily.

Many universities are poorly equipped to cater for the hordes of visitors, and most are now trying to encourage organised tour groups which must be pre-arranged and led by a tour representative.

Children in China often face intense pressure to succeed at school from teachers and parents. 

Although the ‘one-child policy’ has recently ended, Chinese families commonly only have one child, who is often seen as the future breadwinner.

Additional reporting by Christine Wei.