Netizens divided over 4-year-old's long march

A beekeeper and his wife have sparked controversy in Chengdu, Sichaun province after it emerged that they spend up to seven months a year hiking around China with their 4-year-old daughter.

An online poll conducted by the city's West China Metropolis Daily showed that only 31.5 percent of 3,038 respondents were in favor of the practice, with many concerned that the father was pushing the girl too hard.

Originally from Shangrao, Jiangxi province, 38-year-old Pan Tufeng started hiking with his daughter Pan Zhenwen when she was just 15 months old.

Each year, she walks with her father and mother Yuan Rui, 40, for between six and seven months. She has never been to kindergarten and the couple does not plan to send her to one.

"She will have at least 12 years in the classroom from the age of seven when she starts to attend primary school. For now, we want to teach her what she cannot get from the classroom," Pan said.

The family's story was reported by a local newspaper in Sichuan on Monday, soon after they had arrived in Chengdu with plans to walk along the Sichuan-Tibet road for two months to reach Lhasa, the autonomous region's capital. Their journey has since aroused much debate online.

A female resident of Chengdu only identified as Chen said the four-year-old girl was a role model for her son, a second grader who could not yet feed himself.

A netizen called "That is a journey yet to end" thought the young girl could learn much from the countless scenes she would see and people she would meet along the way. Her life has had an arduous but beautiful beginning, the netizen said.

"That netizens support the family's idea of 'walking to learn' reflects the mounting pressure Chinese kids face. School education is exam-oriented and students have to study all the time and have no time to play," said Li Yuanxiu, a kindergarten head teacher in Chengdu.

Nearly 12 percent of respondents to the online poll strongly opposed Pan's idea of letting his daughter experience hardship so that she could better herself, describing this type of education as too extreme.

Among the opponents were those who feared the girl was too young to cope with all the walking and those who considered it wrong not to let her attend kindergarten.

Pan said: "My daughter and I walk slowly and stop whenever we see something interesting. When she is tired, we take a rest. As a father, I would not risk her life to walk for walking's sake."

At 8 am on Friday, Pan and his daughter left Tianquan county for neighboring Ludian county in Sichuan. "The distance between the two is only some 10 kilometers. But we walk at a leisurely place and plan to arrive at a hotel at 8 pm," Pan said, adding that he would teach his daughter the story of the Battle of Luding Bridge when they reached that historically significant crossing across the Dadu River.