Tumen 3 - Nothing for Kids (Tumen, China; 10/2008)

There isn't much in Tumen for young people. You can walk around the entire town in under three hours and the local economy is fueled by the outside world--a mix of tourism and foreign currency sent home by overseas workers (this included many of my students' parents) in South Korea, Singapore, and sometimes the US.

There were a few businesses that catered to more affluent local youth however. The kids whose parents sent money home oftentimes spent it playing Starcraft at 24-hour internet pubs or drinking at the bars against school rules. The kids with no money worked for their tuition by cleaning the squatters in the dorms and mopping the floors.