NZ Through the Eyes of Six Chinese Students

‘New Zealand Through the Eyes of Six Chinese Students’

Education New Zealand: Media Advisory 30/04/08

‘The best way to appeal to students is through the experiences of their own peers’ says Stuart Boag, Communications Director for Education New Zealand. ‘By offering some of China’s top students the opportunity to visit and experience New Zealand – the complete education and lifestyle package – we hope to reach equally qualified and passionate students within Chinese institutions.’

Education New Zealand is running an exciting and innovative marketing campaign in China. Students from three of China’s top universities have entered an essay and blog writing competition for the chance to win an exciting ten day New Zealand tour. Presentations to the six winners of the blogging competition, who won the trip to New Zealand, were made by the Hon. Chris Carter, whilst in China for signing of the Free Trade Agreement earlier in April.

‘The “New Zealand Through My Eyes” blogging campaign recognises that word-of-mouth and the internet medium in China play an important role in raising the profile of New Zealand’s education opportunities’ says Stuart Boag. ‘This blogging competition has undergone two rounds to select the three student winners who will travel around New Zealand. The first was an essay writing competition. The four winners from each university began keeping a blog on popular Chinese social networking website sohu.com. Selection of the eventual six winners was made by a panel of specialist Chinese and New Zealand judges.’

The New Zealand Through My Eyes tour itinerary includes a visit to all of New Zealand's universities and also a number of scenic spots and fun activities to give the students a fuller picture of the student life possibilities in New Zealand. Throughout the tour the students will maintain a blog of their adventures.

Accompanying the student bloggers are three journalists. One journalist is from Shanghai based paper Xinmin Evening News, which has a daily circulation in excess of 1 million and circulates over 500,000 editions of their paper in 20 offshore countries. One journalist is from the Nanfang Daily a paper read by over 1.4 million professionals and young people in the Guangdong region.

The third journalist is from Sohu.com, one of China's most popular web portals with millions of daily visitors. Sohu will also be acting as a promotional campaign partner by hosting the student's blogs on their site, and promoting the blogs in a number of ways on their website.

‘This campaign is an exciting step for New Zealand and is part of a broader programme of utilising modern technology, social networks and student interaction to spread the message about New Zealand, our education system and student life’ says Stuart Boag. ‘We are delighted with the support, advice and resources we have received from the New Zealand Government, Beijing University, Fudan University, Zhongshan University, and lastly, but importantly, Sohu in giving this campaign legs and helping to spread the message.’

ENDS

To view the New Zealand bound student’s Sohu.com blogs (Chinese), visit:
http://zt.blog.sohu.com/s2008/newzealand

To view a Day by day tour diary (English), visit:
http://www.newzealandeducated.com/int/en/blog/latest

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