An increasing number of students in Guangzhou, the booming South China city, are looking for ways to "travel and study abroad" as the winter vacation nears.

Language training institutes aside, many local travel agencies have also established ties with overseas countries and regions where the students want to travel and study for two weeks to a month during the holidays.

EMETC English Training Centre's Guangzhou director George Luo said: "The demand has grown since the New Year. Many parents have come to us asking how their wards can study abroad during the vacation."

"Chinese students are now in a foreign-travel frenzy. And many, especially their parents, think that visiting foreign countries can improve their language skills."

GZL International Travel Service (CGZL) is one of Guangzhou's leading travel agencies focusing on overseas tours.

Its spokeswoman Lu Yujing said: "Our routes to Japan and the UK have been open since the New Year. And almost all of them were booked by parents for their children."

The agency tried to open a route to Australia, but visa registration limitations forced it to give up the idea, she said. "Parents show a lot more interest in booking for such tours. We are in talks with several language training institutes and visa registration agencies to deal with the increasing demand."

Lu said the fees for traveling and studying abroad for two weeks range from 10,000 yuan ($1,250) to 30,000 yuan ($3,750).

But parents don't seem to be too worried about the high fees. Pan Yanyan, who works for a foreign-funded company, said: "The only thing I want is my son to improve his English and learn how to live alone in an English-speaking country." She has booked with CGZL for her son to study in the UK. And he is just 12 years old.

Guangzhou Best English Training Center Director Li Anhong said: "The demand for short overseas study programs is rising rapidly. As a language training institute, we too want a share of the market." Hence, "we will have a traveling and studying abroad program during the next summer vacation.

But experts have asked people to think "more rationally" since a very short program won't do much good to a student's language skills.

Editor: Wing