Kids City in Hangzhou, China

Chinese children will be able to get a taste of adult working life in a theme park planned for Hangzhou city, east China’s Zhejiang Province. The Kids City, the first of its kind in China, offers children aged five to 10 to try out jobs “of their choice” after it opens in October 2008. Located in eastern Hangzhou, the indoor entertainment and education park, similar to “Kidzania” in Mexico and Japan, offers more than 50 professions, including pilot, doctor, police officer and lawyer, according to Hangzhou Youth Activity Center (HYAC), the organizer of the park.

The park will be 7:10 scale city with streets, hospitals, museums, supermarkets, schools, airports and other facilities. Inside the 7,000-square-meter city, every kid would get a bank account holding special money that they can only spend in the park. They could earn more money by working in different booths or workshops. One job would take about half an hour and the whole tour would usually last five to six hours, according to HYAC.

“The interactive experience will help kids to learn about the adult life, which is good for their future career planning. They will have a lot of fun here,” said Huang Jianming, chief of HYAC.

Parents are not allowed to enter the city or accompany their offspring, but they can take pictures from outside the huge glass house. The ticket price has not been decided yet. But HYAC said it might be lower than Kidzania Tokyo’s and around several hundred yuan.