Millions of kids in China took to arenas, museums, parks and even the Great Wall Tuesday to celebrate the International Children's Day though many of their peers worldwide had to spend a less colorful festival amid science, sufferings and even wars.

In the national capital of Beijing, more than 30,000 kids both from China and overseas plunged themselves in activities at the Beijing Working People's Palace of Culture after finishing a oath-swearing ceremony to join the Chinese Young Pioneers, the country's largest organization for children.

A grand national anthem-chanting and flag-raising ceremony participated in by about 10,000 students was also held in the square in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Primary school pupils in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, can spend the Children's Day in a more relaxed mood after receiving a mandate from the city education bureau director to give children a 'homework-free' day to mark the festival.

The kids had also drawn attention and greetings from top Chinese leaders, even days before the Children's Day fell, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

"You minors are the future of the Chinese nation," President HuJintao said on Monday when he mixed with kids in a ceremony marking International Children's Day and wished all children in country good health, progress in school and happy lives.

However, many of the country's 367 million youngsters under 18,especially those rural and vagrant children, are destined to have a less cheerful and happy festival of their own.

China arrested 69,780 juvenile delinquents in 2003, up 12.7 percent over 2002, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), accounting for 9.1 percent of the total criminal suspects arrested.

Yang Shoujian, of the China Youth and Children's Research Center, acknowledged that juvenile delinquents in China these years have become younger than before.

Most of the young criminal suspects were aged between 15 and 16,according to a survey conducted by a leading office of preventing juvenile delinquency under the Chinese central government.

Robbery, theft, assault and rape cases topped juveniles' crimes, Yang acknowledged.

Moreover, China has seen a growing number of drug cases involving youngsters in recent years, as they made up 85 percent of China's drug addicts.

Earlier this year, China made public a package of unprecedented proposals on creating a sound and better environment for its 367 million youngsters under 18 to grow up well, an environment free of drugs and pornographic and other harmful products.

Source: Xinhua