As freshmen began a new life on university campuses this week, those from well-off families have been on shopping sprees while others with humbler financial resources were scrambling to pool enough money to fund fees and living expenses.

A man surnamed Wen flew from Chengdu in Sichuan Province to Beijing with his wife last week to help their 18-year-old son settle down in Tsinghua University. Since it was the first time the teenager was leaving home, Wen and his wife plan to spend two weeks in the capital to make sure everything is all right.

Besides the cost of air tickets and hotel accommodation, Wen spent more than 30,000 yuan to buy his son a laptop computer, an MP3 player, an E-dictionary, a digital camera and a mobile phone.