Terra Retreat, a homestay operator in China, has reconstructed the whole village on the lines of a large homestay to develop rural tourism and benefit the locals by sharing the profit. Collaborating with Aimkids, the homestay gave the volunteers and their children free accommodation during the holiday and tried to build a nature-based classroom and community for the children.

Wu Jianying, manager of Aimkids and one of the families to visit Xuaodi, said the nature-based education project was not carefully planned but eventually had results.

Wu and other volunteers, most of them his friends or colleagues, stayed with their children at the homestay.

"The homestay was constructed on the heritage site of a rural school to accommodate xiucai, a title for entry-level scholars, in ancient China," he said.

From Jan 31 to Feb 15, the families went in batches to experience a three-day working holiday with their children, and some extended it to six days or more.

Children had a rural routine in Xuaodi, wakening to other children's knocking on their doors and eating three meals a day at fixed times as the local cooks required. They needed to help in the kitchen and wash the dishes after meals, too.