The Weight Is Over : Health: China begins sending fat youngsters to an exercise-oriented camp to help shed those extra pounds.

In a land where the problem for centuries has been getting enough to eat, not too much, children of the new capitalists have grown so obese they have their own fat farm.

Liu Mingjie, 14 years old and 209 pounds, stood out even there.

“Just look at me! I’m too fat!” she complained after straining through 24 sit-ups at the Beijing Tian Yu Weight-Loss Camp.

All sorts of special diets had done nothing for Liu. But at the camp, she lost more than 6 1/2 pounds in just six days.

Some of the other 60 campers, age 7 to 16, did even better. The star by Day 7 of the standard 10-day regimen was Wang Yuewei, a 16-year-old who dropped 26 pounds.

“His potbelly has disappeared!” Wang’s delighted mother shouted on parents’ visiting day. She raced through the halls, looking for a telephone to call home with the good news.

Food occupies an exalted place in Chinese culture, perhaps because it has been so difficult for most people to come by. But obesity is a relatively new phenomenon.

Now, the new rich produced by capitalism and double-digit economic growth indulge not only in traditional delicacies, but in such fatty Western novelties as hamburgers, french fries and premium ice cream.

“The Chinese have always liked to express their wealth through food, especially in feeding their children,” said Zhang Shuyu, a physician who founded and runs the Tian Yu camp.

These days, children are spoiled all the more because of the government policy that allows only one per family, she said.

Zhang started the camp in 1990 on the grounds of a hospital in Xiao Tangshan, a village surrounded by cornfields an hour’s drive north of Beijing. Her weight-loss program combines Western nutritional theory, Chinese traditional medicine and exercise.

Because the 10-day camp costs the equivalent of more than $80, about twice the average monthly wage, it initially attracted only the children of Beijing professionals. But when word of Zhang’s success got around, rich peasants and entrepreneurs began sending children from as far away as south China.

In the first three days, campers are put on a liquid diet to shrink their stomachs, reduce fat and regulate metabolism. For the next seven, they eat a no-sweets, low-starch diet high in protein, nutrients and vitamins.

Campers spend four to five hours a day running, jumping rope, swimming, doing calisthenics and lifting weights.

On visiting day, the lectures were for the parents. Zhang handed out suggested menus, advised them not to spoil their children and urged them to stay in touch with the camp staff.

“Don’t undo what we’ve done here,” she said.