Amazing China-Hastings Year of Tourism

What's it all about

Three Hastings high school students will win all expenses-paid trips to China by solving the Amazing China-Hastings Year of Tourism (ACHYOT) puzzles in early 2020.

The project is designed to cultural understanding and relationships between the two countries, expanding tourism and trade opportunities. For Hastings, it is about raising our district’s profile, encouraging Chinese tourists to visit our beautiful area while they are in New Zealand. It builds on the already strong friendship Hastings has with China, including the first New Zealand-China sister-city relationship, with Guilin, now almost 40 years old.

ACHYOT is the latest in the series of China-focused competitions run in Hastings over the last two decades, most recently the Amazing China Face Races.

How does it work

Regions and cities across China have been invited to participate in the ACHYOT. So far more than 20 have registered. The next step will see Hastings send each of the participating areas a small treasure chest holding a gift from Hastings, kindly donated by the Hawke’s Bay Woodturners Guild.

In return, the cities and regions in China will send a chest to Hastings, holding something that uniquely represents their region. Those chests will remain unopened until early 2020, when our high school students will be challenged to match the gifts to their home region in China. (The competition date has been selected to fit in with college timetables.)

The first three students to correctly match all of the gifts to their home region will win the trips to China.

What has happened so far

The project has been officially launched both here and in China, the latter at the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing. More than 100 dignitaries and sponsors as well as representatives of eight national media from across China gathered at the embassy for that launch.

Photos  and video of the best of Hastings have prominently featured in The Beijing News and the Global Times, on Hainan Television and the Global Travel Channel, and across Chinese social media.

Just prior to the Beijing launch, project director Councillor Kevin Watkins personally met China’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr Luo Shugang, during Mr Luo’s recent visit to Wellington, New Zealand. He was very impressed, and expressed his desire that it be a success.

ACHYOT is also officially supported by New Zealand Minister of Tourism Kelvin Davis, Tourism New Zealand, and The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. It is part of the China New Zealand Year of Tourism 2019, an initiative agreed to by the Chinese and New Zealand governments in 2017.

On the official China-New Zealand Year of Tourism website New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism will “strengthen the already deep ties” between the two countries.

For New Zealand, “it is an opportunity to showcase to China what makes Aotearoa a world-class destination: Stunning national landscapes, unique experiences and products, and maanakitanga, our warm and friendly Kiwi welcome”, Ms Ardern said.

News

The swamp kauri used to make the plinths for the hand turned bowls that are the primary gift in the treasure chests bound for China is more than 50,000 year sold.
 
The age testing was done at the Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, the oldest continuously operating radiocarbon dating laboratory in the world. The Lower Hutt lab specialises in radiocarbon measurement which is used for a wide variety of applications – from dating the age of earthquake fault ruptures to determining fossil CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and verifying the authenticity of archaeological antiques. The lab has an international reputation for the quality of its work and has dated more than 60,000 samples since opening.
 
All living things contain the element carbon. Carbon is ingested by plants through photosynthesis and by humans and animals through the consumption of plants, water and air. Carbon occurs naturally in three forms (isotopes): Carbon-12, Carbon-13 and Carbon-14 (14C). Carbon-14 is a rare type of carbon atom that is radioactive, meaning it decays and “breaks down” over time.  While an organism is alive it maintains a constant amount of radiocarbon in its body but when it dies the radiocarbon “stored” in the organism starts to decay away.
 
Carbon dating works by estimating how much radiocarbon was in the organism when it was alive and measuring how much is left in sample now. Because radiocarbon decays at a known rate, scientists can measure the amount remaining in the organism to determine how old it is.  
 
In the lab, samples are treated to remove contamination and then undergo various chemical processes. These processes convert the carbon of the sample into the form of pure graphite so that the radiocarbon content can be measured. A machine called an accelerator mass spectrometer blasts the sample through magnets which separate and measure the amount of radiocarbon remaining, from which the time passed since the organism died is calculated.

Background

Hastings District councillor Kevin Watkins (New Zealand) has long had a strong interest in developing cultural and economic ties between Hastings and China.

The first formal ties between the two cities date back to 1981, when Hastings and Guilin City signed the first China New Zealand Sister Cities protocol. To celebrate the 15th Anniversary in 1996, a very beautiful and traditional Chinese Osmanthus Garden was built in Hastings’ premier Cornwall Park.

Councillor Watkins has been the organiser of the annual Lighting of the Guilin Osmanthus Garden event for the past 10 years, and the organiser of four innovative and world-leading competitions focused on building relationships between our two countries. Three of these have won top national awards.

What's next?

2019 - The Amazing China-Hastings Year of Tourism competition

While these competitions are not usually held every year; because this is the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism an exception has been made, leading to the holding of The Amazing China-Hastings Year of Tourism.