A Dongguan-based school has become a highly popular educational oasis for children of Taiwanese businessmen working in China's Pearl River Delta by following Taiwan's academic and teaching norms. The Taiwan Businessmen's Dongguan School (TBDS) , currently the largest school in China established for children of Taiwanese expats there, provides a welcome alternative to international schools or local Chinese schools that the children would otherwise have to attend. In implementing Taiwan's academic curricula for students aged between 3-18, it has carved out a real niche and even surpassed services offered by some schools in Taiwan, boasts the school's principal Wen Ming-cheng. 'The school has done more for the children of Taiwanese businessmen than day schools in Taiwan because TBDS is a boarding school,' Wen said in an interview with the Central News Agency. For example, he said, TBDS offers 34 classes per week for its elementary students, 11 more than offered by regular elementary schools in Taiwan. Of the 34 classes, six are for English learning, two for computer training and four for music and the arts, Wen added. The philosophy and academic norms in the Dongguan, Guangdong province school, also clearly differ from those found in Chinese schools, Wen observed. While Taiwanese schools generally steer clear of politics, Chinese schools are operated 'under the guidance of the Communist Party of China.' At the same time, Chinese teachers are disciplinarians and their students are afraid to ask questions, while Taiwanese students are more independent, lively and creative and are better at absorbing knowledge, Wen observed. The Dongguan school, set up in September 2000 and was the first of three schools for Taiwanese children in China, currently has some 1,700 students, nearly half of the 3,500 children of Taiwanese businessmen working in the Pearl River Delta area. In order to provide them with an at-home feeling, Wen said, the school divides its more than 700 elementary students into 40 families, with the teachers as 'parents,' the voluntary workers there as 'uncles and aunts, ' and the sixth graders as 'big brothers and sisters.' Although the school costs more than 10,000 Chinese yuan for each student per semester, 180 children who previously attended Chinese schools in Guangdong transferred to TBDS in 2009, and 35 more will transfer there during the winter break, Wen said, the latest indicator of how important it is to Taiwan's expat community there. 