(18 November 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, organized a nationwide in-store sustainability activity called “Take the Challenge! Battle Arena Games!” across the country on 1 November. Over 660 customers teamed up to take the nametag ripping and other challenges in stores, to cheer on the “NWDS Sowers Action Challenging 12 Hours Charity Marathon 2015” (“NWDS Sowers Action Challenging 12 Hours”) taking place in Hong Kong on the same day to spread love.

To carry forward the cause and forge ahead into the future, NWDS has title-sponsored the “NWDS Sowers Action Challenging 12 Hours” for two consecutive years, and held the in-store “Take the Challenge! Battle Arena Games!” across the country on the day of the marathon. With a theme of a recent red-hot game, participants were required to take challenges including tissue relay, walking on shiatsu mat, tug of war, can toss, singing on spinning bike and the “King of Nametag Ripping”, to gain the chance to win the honor of the king of the arena. With massive online and offline promotions on Weibo, WeChat and in stores, the innovative activity managed to recruit about 230 teams, equivalent to more than 660 participants, across the country.

After earning experiences from preliminary round, finalist teams got familiar with nametag ripping with dodging and running. While in the challenge of “King of Nametag Ripping”, they were required to search for promotional cards featuring “NWDS Sowers Action Challenging 12 Hours” from every corner of the store. Participants enjoyed these exciting and interesting games and accomplished them in a joint effort with their teammates. The team collecting the most nametags and promotional cards was named winner and was awarded NWDS N-card and souvenirs. The intensity of the games drew many on-lookers, educating more people to know about the “NWDS Sowers Action Challenging 12 Hours” successfully.

To make the games more interesting, some stores incorporated parent-child elements into them and invited VIP members to take the challenges with their family members. Hong Kong New World Department Store – Shanghai Chengshan Branch Store, Hong Kong New World Department Store – Shanghai Shaanxi Branch Store and Hong Kong New World Department Store – Shanghai Pujian Branch Store modified the nametag ripping challenge to a piggyback riding one. Some stores also organized clay DIY workshop to let participating families enjoy parent-child time in a different way. Tianjin New World Department Store even introduced the “Love Hug” game and parent-child shiatsu mat challenge to train up children’s responding level, which were well received by participating families.

Ms. Rebecca Woo, Corporate Affairs Director and Chairman of Sustainability Steering Committee of NWDS, said, “This year’s ‘Take the Challenge! Battle Arena Games!’ was again well received by customers. Most of them expressed that they have better learnt about the education-aid idea of the “NWDS Sowers Action Challenging 12 Hours” through the excitement of the games and the persistence and team spirit of the participants, which showed the games managed to inspire the public to join our alliance to help under-resourced high school students. In the future, we hope to incorporate more new elements into our sustainability activities to enhance public participation to spread love together.”

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