(14 August 2015- Hong Kong) New World Department Store China Limited (“NWDS” or the “Company”; Hong Kong stock code: 825), one of the largest owners and operators of department stores in Mainland China, held the “@Dream Tennis Tournament” (“Tournament”) at Shanghai Second Polytechnic University’s tennis court yesterday to invite Shanghai tennis elites to compete and interact with each other. The Tournament is one of the five core activities of the “NWDS @Dream Annual Games” (the “Games”). 

The “@Dream Tennis Tournament”, co-organized by NWDS and Shanghai Changning District Sport Association, aims to improve tennis skills of students from “@Sports – Tennis Academy” training program through competitions. The Tournament was held on 13 August in the form of team or individual. Matches were conducted on an 11-point knockout system between contesting teams drawn by lots according to the international system. Six teams participated in the Tournament, namely Shanghai Haitang Primary School in Jinshan District, Shanghai Tianyi Primary School in Changning District, Shanghai Changning Experimental Primary School, Shanghai Pingbo Sports Club, Shanghai Tennis Club and Shanghai Changning Road Primary School in Changning District. A series of competitive matches kicked off immediately after a simple and solemn ceremony. Though contesters are all primary students, they showed no compromise on their skill level. Students from the “@Sports – Tennis Academy”, who joined public competition for the first time, did not show any stage fright and managed to give a good account of themselves to demonstrate their one-year learning outcomes. After several rounds of matches, Shanghai Haitang Primary School in Jinshan District won the championship. 

The “NWDS @Dream Annual Games” is an annual heavy-weighted event of the “@Dream Sustainable Development Program” (“@Dream Program” or the “Program”) held from July to September. The Games consists of five components, namely the “@Dream Cup・Soccer Tournament”, the “@Dream Cup・Tennis Tournament”, the “@Dream Sunshine Teen” Voting Campaign, the “Demonstration Show cum Award Ceremony of the ‘@Dream Annual Games’ Finalists” and the “@Dream Sunshine Teen Charity Actions”. For the “@Dream Sunshine Teen” Voting Campaign launched earlier, a total of over 50,000 votes so far has been casted. Interested parties can vote among 13 academic-sport elites on the website (http://amxygsn.shedunews.com/) by 15 September and the four top runners in the voting campaign will further compete for the honor of “@Dream Sunshine Teen”. The voters could gain an opportunity to win the big prizes, including an autographed soccer ball from Shanghai Greenland Shenhua FC players and Apple Watch. The first draw will be held on 15 August. 

Ms. Rebecca Woo, Corporate Affairs Director and Chairman of Sustainability Steering Committee of NWDS, said, “Playing tennis can fully enhance children’s body coordination, explosive power and endurance, and is beneficial to their healthy development. Considering its high tuition and facilities fee, NWDS launched the ‘@Sports – Tennis Academy’ training program in 2014 and has subsidized about 100 migrant children to learn playing tennis up to now. With the tennis tournament, we hope to boost students’ confidence by providing them an on-field experience and to encourage the public to join us to promote children tennis in order to cultivate more tennis elites for society.”

- End -