Young people have been heading west to work on American summer camps since the 1960s but now a small but growing number of travellers are heading east, to work in China. One travel agency has just launched its own programme – among only a handful of similar projects in the UK – facilitating work on Chinese summer camps.

Smaller Earth’s Adventure China programme gives young people the chance to work as a camp counsellor for eight weeks. There is a choice of two locations for applicants (who must be over 18): Camp Heavenland in Inner Mongolia and Camp Future in a nature reserve outside the city of Qingdao.

As well as pitching itself as an opportunity to gain work experience, it also allows participants time to travel in China. The Adventure China programme costs £399 for eight weeks, including all food, accommodation, flights, insurance and $200-$500 in pay. Camp counsellors then have the chance to travel around China for up to 90 days afterwards.

The Smaller Earth initiative joins that of Gotoco, a project established in 2011 by a group of friends who met at Oxford University. It is currently accepting applications for its 2018 programme. Each year it places hundreds of participants from the UK, the US and Canada with partnered projects across China, aiming to provide a cultural exchange opportunity and the chance to undertake free and funded summer camps and TEFL placements. It also offers the chance to participate in Chinese lessons, cultural activities and a holiday to Yangshuo.

The initiative hopes to deliver a contrast to the regular gap year travel experience

Tobenna Ogwunda, 19, a biomedical sciences student at the University of Aberdeen, worked as a camp counsellor in Qingdao last year, during a trial run of the Smaller Earth programme, after she didn’t get a camp place in the US.

“On the weekends we got two days off to travel and visit the city, so I got to see the night life in Qingdao, sing lots of karaoke with the other counsellors, visit mountains and other really fun activities.”

Oliver Norris, from Adventure China said: “Our American summer camp programme is still enormously popular but we’re finding that the chance to learn Mandarin Chinese is a real pull, as is the desire for an authentic travel experience; one that offers an additional level of challenge and a contrast to the regular gap year routine.”

Though the majority of tourists to China are from other Asian countries (74.6% of inbound trips), it is attracting an increasing number of young people from further afield looking to study degrees in business and economics.

China currently receives more than 400,000 international students a year, with a growing number from the UK. In 2013 the British Council launched the Generation UK–China campaign, which aims to help 80,000 students from the UK gain study or work experience opportunities in China by 2020. Research conducted in 2016 showed that UK parents considered Mandarin the “most beneficial” non-European language.