Boy with suspected autism goes missing from Dali summer camp; organizer criticized

(ECNS) -- An 8-year-old boy suspected of having autism went missing on Friday while attending a summer camp in Dali, southwest China's Yunnan, sparking criticism over the camp's alleged poor management.

On Saturday, the joint search team, composed of local police, firefighters, and other parties once again issued a notice calling on the public to offer clues about the boy.

The notice described the boy as about 1.2 meters tall with a thin build. He was last seen wearing a blue-and-white shirt, dark jeans and an orange children's backpack, and carrying an identification tag with his family's phone numbers.

"Please call 110 if you have any clues. Verified information may be rewarded," the notice stated.

According to earlier reports, the summer camp adopts a closed management mode. During the activity, only the teachers accompanied the campers, and parents were not allowed. The boy, from Beijing, was attending the camp with six other children ages 6 to 8 and four adult teachers.

A local research and education institution explained that most summer camps in Dali offer either parent-child programs or child-only options.

Typical child camps group participants by age (3–6 and 7–12 years old) and run weeklong daily sessions from about 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with parents picking up children afterward.

These camps usually enroll 18 children per group, supervised by seven teachers along with a photographer and driver. Staff often have early childhood education backgrounds or expertise in outdoor activities, including former military personnel. Children generally wear GPS trackers and are covered by insurance.

Outdoor activities typically take place near Cangshan Mountain, Erhai Lake, streams, and valleys, focusing on short, well-established routes with limited elevation gain.

A local camp staff member noted that camps serving children with special needs may be less standardized and its teaching methods more open.

The incident has sparked discussion on Chinese social media Weibo. Some netizens argue that the child is too young to attend such a camp by himself, while some question why the summer camp didn't put a GPS tracker on the child.

(By Zhang Dongfang)