Every pavilion has teachers to instruct the children. The teachers are required to be trained, so one who is instructing in a beauty salon needs to have expertise in the work.

Children start their "play house" journey by first choosing a job.

On the door of every pavilion, which is also a work unit, there is a small notice board advising on when the next round of employment starts, including details on vacancy numbers and employee requirements.

Similar to real life, some jobs require high qualifications, others don't: the newspaper only recruits kids above grade three to be reporters, rescue team staff must be taller than 1.3 meters, but the housekeeper service and construction companies don't have any requirements.

But the salaries don't vary as much as real life - jobs pay from 5 yuan (73 US cents) to 8 yuan - a position in a pavilion last about 30 minutes, and a child can take as many as jobs he or she can handle in the fixed time.

As reality goes, some jobs are indoors while others are outside.

Wandering around the small city, people may see a dozen junior policemen and policewomen in uniform patrolling around, firemen dousing a blaze with a small hose, postmen running with mailbags, and a little reporter may ask your feelings about the city.

And some of the other action takes place just as normally.

"Good morning, miss. We're police in Dudo City, and we're looking for a 30-year-old suspect in red shirt and black jeans, blind in one eye and with long hair. Have you seen him?"

"Yes, he just had his teeth cleaned in my clinic, and he said he's going to the Moon Street."

This is a conversation between kid police and an adult doctor (a teacher) in the dental clinic, and it's a task to "find the bad guy" designated for little policemen. The kids hear an alarm go off in the office and then make up a patrol team to catch the bad guy under a teacher's guidance.

All units give appropriate tasks to the kids and pay a salary only after the job is done. Sometimes a bonus or overtime payment is added when kids do excellent jobs or work on holidays.

A boy works as a car mechanic, with the help of a teacher, at a car workshop in Dodu City.

"Kids are not supposed to grasp some working skills in the game, but to learn how to cope with events, communicate with people, and express emotion correctly," says Zhu Jiaxiong, a professor of preschool education in East China Normal University.

"They use their own way to study and get experience in the imitating society, and parents are suggested to let the children learn by themselves," he adds.

Source: Shanghai Daily