Parents question worth of study tours

Overseas study tours for students, usually with a price tag of thousands of dollars, have become controversial among Chinese parents following a number of recent scandals.

In July, a photo of primary school students sitting outside Woodbury Info Center, a shopping center close to New York, caused a stir online as netizens learned the teachers were shopping while the children chewed hamburgers on the curb.

In another example, parents of children at a well-known Beijing primary school found Las Vegas was on the itinerary of a 10-day, 30,000-yuan ($4,720) study tour to the United States. The teachers explained that the casinos also had services for children.