Shanghai Holiday Tour Agency has begun setting up charitable tours to underdeveloped parts of the country as part of the "One Kg Plan," an initiative out of Beijing that encourages travelers to poor areas to take books, stationery and other gifts to poor children.

 

The agency will take 10 yuan (US$1.25) from the plane ticket fee of every tourist travelling to Hainan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces by Shanghai Airline Co Ltd. The money will be used to send books and other necessities to poor kids living in the four provinces.

 

"We are the first tour agency in the country to support the 'One Kg Plan.' As we are owned by Shanghai Airlines, we have sufficient flight resources, which is our biggest advantage," said Hu Xin, the agency's public relations manager.

 

He said the charitable program hasn't been able to reach some mountainous areas in the past when it depended on individual travelers.

 

The agency is now planning to develop more tour products associated with the plan, said Hu.

 

The agency joined the plan last November after talking to Yu Haitao, the Beijing-based founder of the plan.

 

"We know that may indigent areas have many travel resources, and we believe it is a good idea to combine traveling with charity," Yu said.

 

In January, the agency organized its first charitable tour group of 30 people, mostly white collar workers in the city, to Baibi Village in the southeastern Guizhou Miao Autonomous Canton, which is a seven-hour ride from Guiyang, capital of Guizhou.

 

The group took stationery and books to the young students there, and talked and played games with the children. The basic living conditions and the children's desire for knowledge moved the volunteers.

 

"The gap in living conditions is not the most serious thing - the obstruction of information is," said Jin Yanping, a group member.

 

(Shanghai Daily March 5, 2007)