Some children value saving money to buy what they want.
For an 11-year-old primary school boy in Hebei province, China, he set aside one yuan daily since May from the money his grandmother gave him every week to buy snacks, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
By the sixth month, the boy, surnamed Zhang, had saved 200 one-yuan notes and proceeded to buy a pair of shoes. The footwear was not for him, though. It was a birthday gift for his mother so she could replace her worn-out shoes.
When the shoe shop owner learned of Zhang’s intention, she was so touched by his thoughtfulness that she offered him a 50 percent discount so he could keep the rest of his saved money. The shop owner also allowed the young customer to exchange the shoes if they were not to his mother’s liking, according to SCMP.
She recorded the encounter with the boy and shared it with her young daughter and on social media. The heartwarming clip quickly went viral, amassing millions of views, 428,000 likes, and 27,000 comments.
Meanwhile, a third-year master’s degree student at Shanghai University of Sport in China used his spare time giving tutorials for a fee.
The student, surnamed Li, charged customers 800 yuan for lessons that he guaranteed would be learned by the end of the course.
Lessons for adults consisted of two sessions lasting one to two hours. For children, there were more classes lasting one to one-and-a-half hours.
After two years of teaching people how to ride bicycles, Li counted 700 customers aged four to 68, mostly women in their 20s and 30s. His earnings reached 270,000 yuan (US$39,000) during the period, which he recently shared on social media. His post went viral.
Li himself was surprised by his successful sideline but attributed it to the huge demand for biking lessons in the country. After he graduates in June, Li plans to expand his market in Shanghai and cover the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu in eastern China.