Family ties are hugely important in China, but thousands of Chinese parents are still sending children as young as three away to boarding school. Why do they do it?

Kelly Jiang bounces into her kindergarten classroom, her parents a few steps behind.

"Bye Mum and Dad," the four-year-old trills, with barely a backwards glance.

As her parents wave farewell, she's already happily chatting to her teacher and her classmates.

There are no tears, no cuddles and no long goodbyes, which is all the more remarkable, because Kelly won't see or talk to her mother and father for another four days.

Kelly is one of dozens of three and four-year-olds sent to this boarding kindergarten in Shanghai. From Monday morning to Friday afternoon she and her classmates play, learn, eat and sleep in their brightly coloured classroom and its attached dormitory, only going home at weekends.

They are not alone. There are other boarding kindergartens in Shanghai, Beijing and other major Chinese cities. While no official figures are available, it's estimated that the number of boarding toddlers runs into thousands nationwide.

In traditional Chinese culture, family is prized about all else - so how can the phenomenon of the boarding toddler be explained?

There are a few reasons, says Xu Jing, executive principal of the Kangqiao kindergarten affiliated to the China Welfare Institute (CWI) in Shanghai.

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