A former Chinese backwater beach resort will be the focus of billions of TV viewers worldwide today when it stages the Miss World beauty pageant. Posted on 12/03/2004 11:54:04 AM PST by M. Espinola
A former Chinese backwater beach resort will be the focus of billions of TV viewers worldwide today when it stages the Miss World beauty pageant.
Sanya, at the southern tip of Hainan island in the South China Sea, was once so remote that when foreigners visited they drew open-mouthed stares.
Then Miss World arrived. And nothing was the same again.
When organisers of the pageant picked Sanya as the site of the event in 2003, the Government loosened its purse strings and paid for roads and other facilities. Private money built a $US12 million ($A15.5 million) tiara-shaped convention centre to hold the final.
In exchange, Sanya provided a tranquil setting for a pageant that was forced to flee Nigeria the previous year after rioting killed 200 Muslims and Christians.
(Rosanna Davison-2003 Miss World) Both sides found the partnership so rewarding that Miss World is in Sanya for a second straight year, promising to draw a worldwide television audience for its white beaches and azure surf when 107 women compete in the final tomorrow night.
Organisers claim that last year's event was watched by 2.3 billion people - the kind of advertising that a little beach resort such as Sanya could never buy.
Even before this year's final, pageant president Julia Morley announced yesterday that Sanya had been picked as the site of Miss World again next year.
The 107 Miss World hopefuls - including Australia's Sarah Davies - have been warmly greeted on the island.
"The girls . . . are overwhelmed by the reaction they have received and it has given them a real boost at a time of competition," Ms Morley said.
Tonight, 15 finalists will be chosen from the 107 contestants before the winner is announced.
Ms Davies, a 22-year-old business graduate from Brisbane, was crowned Miss World Australia in September and in Sanya has already run second to the United States entrant in the competition's beach beauty final.
Australian interest in beauty pageants has been rekindled since Newcastle cheerleader Jennifer Hawkins claimed the Miss Universe title earlier this year.
Tourism in the area received a much-needed boost after last year's event, won by Irishwoman Rosanna Davison, daughter of Lady in Red singer Chris de Burg
Great minds think alike
More like the Pebble of Gibraltar
Oak Hay... Where's all the Burka Babes ???
WOWEE WOWZZERS! You'll like this one!!
Already studied it ;)
Oh, I didn't see your name or your drool. LOL
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You are the man, oeb!
keyboard spew alert next time, please ;-)
Has anyone ever seen the movie Captain's Paradise?
Good stuff. Alec Guiness is a ships captain between Gibraltor and Morocco. B&W but holds up well!
Once Iran is mullah free and the 'chador' is no longer forced on females Iran too shall have a Miss Iran.
(The 'burka' is Afghani)
you are an evil person.
A fine grouping of photos! Our own Miss USA is in the running, even though we have picked Miss Gibraltar.
she's got some junk in that trunk.
A fine grouping of photos! Our own Miss USA is in the running, even though we have picked Miss Gibraltar.
Our own Miss USA is a rare bauety and shall be in the top contenders. 
Winner Miss Peru (right) with first runner-up Miss Dominican Republic.
She must be religious. Her cups runneth over.
Can you tear yourself away from football?
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