Online vendors have helped people visit their parents following a new law that came into effect on July 1 requiring children to regularly visit or contact their elderly parents, the Beijing Youth Daily reports.

One vendor on taobao.com, China's biggest e-commerce website, is offering to visit customers' parents for 100 yuan ($16) per hour.

Sun Ruojun, an associate professor at Renmin University of China, said such services cater to youths with minimal free time who live far from their parents.

"Burdened by pressure from working away from their hometowns, many of the post-1980s generation don't have enough time to go home and visit their parents," Sun said.