Golf training courses for children are booming in Beijing.

Parents are falling over themselves to send their children to high-class sport training to cultivate high-class manners.

Golf clubs in the capital including the SGA Golf Club, the Beijing Sports Bureau Training Division and Tianyi Golf Club are offering summer classes and weekend training courses for young children.

Golf camps became popular in Beijing last year, and the popularity has peaked this summer. The high tuition fees of these courses hasn't deterred parents.

"We received hundreds of calls about the courses before our first summer term began. The number of applicants was double last year's figure," The First newspaper quoted an executive from Tianyi Golf Club as saying.

The cost of tuition ranges from 2,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan (US$200 to 500).

Long-term courses are also available. At 800 yuan (US$100) for a half and an hour training at SGA Golf Club. It costs about 10,000 yuan (US$1,250) for a kid to take a three-month course, according to Li Nan, principal of the club.

"Most of the children's families are well off," Li said. "Many parents work for multinationals and their children were born abroad. Many of the parents play golf themselves."

Children are taught basic golfing skills, including the different types of golf clubs.

Young trainees at the SGA camp have no problems communicating with their Australian coach.

"Playing golf can help children cultivate high-class manners, " a trainee's mother said.

Parents want their children to be members of the elite, according to Xia Xueluan, a sociology professor from Beijing University. "Parents should respect children's interests instead of flattering their own vanity," he said, adding that weeks of training won't turn their kids into aristocrats.