Li Sha discovered by Nesta Lade

The winner of The Amazing China Face Race has been revealed.

Nesta Lade, 14, found and contacted the “China Face”, or Li Sha, on Thursday afternoon, got the correct name and code word and emailed them to the competition’s email address at 4.09pm.

Nesta is a Year 10 student at Havelock North High School. It gives the school the trifecta: Students from the college also won similar competitions in 2006 and 2008.

Nesta was born in Dunedin, and her family moved to Hastings when she was six years old.

Solving the daily clues and then tracking down the phone number of the Face around all her other activities could not have been easy. As well as completing her school work, she plays violin, sings and studies Mandarin by correspondence

Like most other competitors, Google was her go to place to solve the first 32 clues, with a little bit of help from family and friends.

Then she tracked down an article in a Chinese newspaper that referred to The Amazing China Face Race competition. Through that, she discovered where Li Sha worked and phoned the organisation who gave Nesta Li Sha’s mobile number.

Nesta said the Face was “nervous”.

Councillor Kevin Watkins who had organised the competition, from raising the funds for the winner’s trip to China and Li Sha’s trip to New Zealand to a marketing budget, was very pleased to meet the winner.

He said his motivation for running the competition was to encourage links between Hastings and China, and to further Hastings students understanding of all the tools available when communicating with people in China. Those same reasons were why sponsors Guangxi Hongda Assets Services Ltd, Air New Zealand, Paritua winery and Hastings District Council backed the competition, Mr Watkins said.

Now plans would start for Nesta’s 10 day trip to China, she will visit, among many other places, Li Sha in her home town Beichuan.

Also on the drawing board are the plans for Li Sha’s visit to Hastings, timed so she can join in September’s Blossom Festival.

Our teens have stamina

Based on the number of Facebook views, it is estimated that about 150 students were still in the running by the time the competition was solved. Daily hits across the first week started off at 300, dropped to just under 200, and levelled out at 150. That was a good number in a competition that took sleuthing skills and stamina, said organiser councillor Kevin Watkins.

Students and families of students he had spoken to all said it had been interesting and fun, and that they had “learned things about China they probably would never have otherwise have learned”.

Kevin wanted to thank all students who had entered the competition and commended them for their dedication.

4 October 2017

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