A ticket home for Spring Festival may have been hard to get, but for some poor college students it has proven impossible.

A recent survey showed that of the students who stayed on campus during the holiday, more than 60 percent were those with financial difficulties, according to the Beijing News.

About 80 percent of cash-strapped students planned to earn some extra money by working during the holiday.

The survey, conducted by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), a non-governmental organization based in Beijing, sampled 4,217 undergraduate students at 14 universities in Beijing before the festival began. Of them, about 2,790 students are financially needy.

Travel cost is one of the major concerns that keeps more than one-third of those surveyed students from going home.

"I want to go home. But it is such a long distance and it is very costly. So I have to give up the idea," said Abuliaiti, a student of the Central University for Nationalities.

Li Lequn, a student in Beijing Forestry University, said he was 2,000 yuan (US$256) in debt to his classmates despite his efforts in a part-time job on campus.

"I have to pay back the borrowed money from working the holiday job," Li said.

Many of the less fortunate students use student loans to pay for tuition fees. Their living costs ranges from 200 to 300 yuan (US$25 to US$38) a month.

However, even the maximum loan, which is about 6,000 yuan (US$770), is not enough for daily expenses and the tuition fees.

A return trip home means two-month living expenses for a student.

Apart from the worries about travel expenses, stay-on-campus students also planned to use the holiday to improve their skills, such as in foreign languages and computers.

About 40 percent of the interviewed students chose to stay because they want to study on campus.

"The majority of poor students come from rural or remote areas. In terms of the academic performance, they are behind students from urban areas," said Chen Hongtao, director of the New Great Wall Project of the CFPA.

"I miss home. Spring Festival is time for family reunion," said Jia Jiezheng, a Henan native from the Beijing Forestry University. "But I don't' want to see my mom worry about money for tickets home. I am 20 something. Sooner or later I will be independent. Even though I feel uncomfortable, I have to live up with the reality."

(China Daily February 23, 2007)