Yuan Guangkuo (Beijing News): Why can't ordinary workers attend a study tour overseas? The places they visited, such as Singapore, are famous for their regulations on city management and environmental hygiene. If ordinary street sweepers in China can be there and broaden their horizons, it would be quite beneficial for their future work.

Sending street sweepers abroad for a study tour aims at encouraging them to learn from and communicate with peers and more importantly, is an affirmation for their hard work. The local government says one of the purposes of the tour is to cultivate a good atmosphere of caring about street sweepers. Seeing from the feelings of street sweepers who have come back from the tour, the purpose has been successfully achieved.

Most people remain suspicious about this tour not because of the street sweepers but because of their negative impression of "overseas study tours." As a matter of fact, such study tours should be a positive phrase. But after it seemed to become the privilege for government officials and the equivalent of traveling abroad at public expense, most people do not have a good impression of the phrase any more. In this sense, sending street sweepers on such a study tour is a correction for the already misunderstood "overseas study tour."

Not practical

Yan Hui (www.cnhubei.com): There are several reasons for people's disputes on such tours. First, they worry some street sweepers might be secretly replaced by government officials. If the whole process of choosing members of the tours is neither transparent nor open, it could easily be manipulated and used by some government officials.

Second, exactly how much effect can such tours achieve? Most street sweepers are people living at the bottom of society and are not well educated. Even if they can go abroad for a study tour, can they really learn anything within such a short period of time?

Advocating the concept of "loving and caring about street sweepers" is a good intention that deserves our praise, but the way to do it should be more practical. For instance, the city of Urumchi provided free breakfast for 12,000 street sweepers that work the early shift. It's a warm and more practical policy that has appropriately expressed their love and care to street sweepers.

Guaranteeing rights of workers at the bottom of society can't be realized by an eye-catching study tour, but should be expressed by improving their salaries and other welfare that are closely related to their lives.

Liu Chuhan (Xi'an Evening News): The original purpose for this study tour is said to be learning about advanced experience to improve domestic practice in this area. The purpose sounds good. But, is it really necessary to go abroad to learn about advanced experiences? Will the experiences be suitable for us? Even if they have really learned suitable experiences, can those more advanced working patterns be effectively implemented in China?

Second, the tour is sponsored by the government. Then, is the study tour necessary? Is the input-output ratio good enough? We can't ignore these questions just because it is street sweepers that go for the study tour rather than government leaders. The decision should be made after careful consideration and assessment and the whole process must be under strict supervision.

Another possibility is that they sent out street sweepers to give them a reward for their previous hard work. Some street sweepers even say they would rather have more salary or more holiday allowance than the seemingly fancy study tours. It's all right to give them an overseas holiday as a reward, but it shouldn't be in the name of a study tour. If so, isn't it a kind of corruption?

Overseas study tours must be strictly supervised and controlled. Traveling at public expense in the name of study tours must be stopped. No matter if leaders or ordinary workers go for the study tour, it must be put under strict public supervision.

Zhang Bingge (news.xinhuanet.com/comments): Street sweepers are usually called "decorators of the city" and "angels on the road" in China. They work very hard on keeping the city clean and tidy no matter how bad the weather is. Nonetheless, they live at the bottom of society and only get the lowest level of payment and social status. Therefore, their gains are not in accordance with their hard work.

For instance, a street sweeper called Zeng Rong, who has been praised by the local government for her long-term hard work, only got 520 yuan ($82.1) a month as her salary before November 2010. After that, her salary was raised a little but is still very low–only 909 yuan ($143.5) per month. Street sweepers are generally poorly paid in the country.

What is the most badly needed thing for street sweepers? If you ask them, they would probably say "higher salary" rather than "a study tour."

If local governments really respect and care about street sweepers, they should show it by increasing their salaries or other welfare. If street sweepers are well paid, they can go abroad themselves and needn't bother the local government.