In the West, institutions are considered the worst environment for rearing young children. It was thus surprising to discover on the 2002 Fulbright Travel Seminar to China that boarding schools for children two years of age and older were popular among affluent parents. This article uses observations of the first author in China, cultural knowledge of the second author (a Chinese woman living in the United States and trained as a school psychologist), recent Chinese history relative to family and educational policy, and attachment theory to explore developmental implications of boarding toddlers, and the cultural context supporting it, and to suggest directions for future research.