A group of luobangsheng (students who fail in high school or college entrace examination) get relaxed from their social practice experience in Hangzhou.

Twenty years ago, as bewildering winds of openness and change were sweeping China, Hangzhou opened what was believed to be the country's first crisis telephone hotline for adolescents.

Young people play musical instruments to relieve pressure an depression.

In those days there were youth troubles of love, study and philosophy and questions of adjusting to rapid social change and expectations.

Today, those problems persist - adolescence is a difficult time everywhere in the world - but there are new and more complicated problems facing youth today.

Experts cite troubling issues such as extreme pressure to excel in school, dangers of Internet and cell phone addiction, alienation, loneliness and depression, premature sexual activity, pregnancy and violence.

Parents themselves are under pressure to succeed, to make money and to see that their children succeed; their anxieties are communicated to children. A rising divorce rate means children may lack stable families. Children from one-child families face a whole set of issues and expectations. The list goes on.

In 1990, Hangzhou established its 24-hour crisis hotline for adolescents: 12355.

Over 20 years the government volunteer organization has received nearly 110,000 calls reflecting changing times. They spent 216,000 hours on the phone and around 248,000 hours in face-to-face consultation.

Director Song Jian'nan and psychology counsellors Zhang Zude, Zheng Ping and An Caixiu discuss some issues and positive coping methods.