For the past two months, Ma Rui has been preoccupied with finding a kindergarten - any kindergarten - for her son, who will soon turn 3.

On a weekday afternoon, instead of being at work, Ma was rushing off for a 2 pm appointment at a public kindergarten in Beijing. That night, she would be back at her desk - at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's headquarters in Beijing - to finish her work.

Ma, a 31-year-old accountant, is one of thousands of parents in Beijing desperately anxious to get a kindergarten place for their children. The demand for such places has risen sharply in China, with estimates of 540,000 places needed in

just the public kindergartens.

"I've tried three public kindergartens nearby, but their responses have not been encouraging as they can take in only a limited number of children," Ma says. "They just don't have sufficient resources and teachers to support the demand."

Ma says the best kindergarten closest to her home has hundreds of children on the waiting list.

The demand for places at public kindergartens is growing, thanks largely to the lower fees they charge, ranging from 500 yuan (54 euros) to 1,700 yuan a month.

Fees at privately owned and international kindergartens usually start from about 4,500 yuan a month, as these kindergartens employ foreign teachers and use international teaching methods.

Ma says that she cannot afford fees demanded by privately owned kindergartens. "My husband and I have to pay the housing mortgage of more than 7,000 yuan each month.

"We also need to save money for my son's future education, so our financial situation is really tight now," she says.

In Beijing, the relation between supply and demand of public kindergartens is extremely unbalanced. This is related to the baby boom between 2006 and 2008, and limited kindergarten numbers, Beijing Daily reported.

Suo Liansheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, says the number for children attending public kindergartens in Beijing will reach 540,000 in the next three years.

He estimated that almost 10,000 classes and 14,600 teachers will be needed to meet the demand, and suggested the government raise funds on preschool education and make more efforts to develop the number of public kindergartens.