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By Kimmy Zhang Robins, Special to the Manila
Times
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Miss
Philippines
Krystle Ann Dizon shows
off the centuries-old
Iron Pagoda |
Sure, the whole of China (and the world!) is
excited over the coming Olympic Games to be held in Beijing but a
different Olympics recently took China by storm. It was the annual
Miss Tourism Queen International Beauty Pageant participated in by
112 beautiful delegates from around the world. The latest to make it
to the prestigious group of grand slam pageants, Miss Tourism Queen
International takes its place among the top pageants in the
world—Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, and Miss
Earth. It broke its own record of 108 contestants joining last year.
The contest reportedly started off on the
wrong foot. Many of the contestants were not warned of the late
March to mid-April weather in China , particularly in Zhengzhou ,
Kaifeng , and Luoyang . It was freezing! The girls complained that
they had to brave the cold wearing their flimsy evening gowns during
the evening gown competition which was won by Miss Venezuela .
Thanks heavens the swimsuit competition was held indoors or the
girls would have frozen stiff!
Then seemingly from out of nowhere, Miss
United States of America suddenly quit, complaining about lack of
sleep hours, taxing schedules, and limited food for the contestants
and vegetarians like her. Many contest franchise holders and
national directors were alarmed and checked on their candidates only
to find out that the girls were actually having a grand time with
the best accommodations and overabundance of sumptuous food. And
although young girls will be young girls (and to them gourmet food
goes by the name of McDonald’s), they nonetheless enjoyed the
five-star food prepared by the hotels. Then Miss South Africa
withdrew for serious private matters she had to attend to back home
while Miss Korea withdrew for rather unclear reasons.
The show had to go on and as in the previous
years, China showed off her most beautiful tourism attractions,
wowing the girls. One thing discernible in all the places the girls
visited was the sincere eagerness of the Chinese to please. The
whole community from the senior citizens to the youngest children
was involved in the welcoming festivities. China always spotlighted
their remarkable culture and art which the girls found exotic and
intriguing. As the contest finals drew near, the girls have bonded
and have become close friends. But the competitive spirit was still
there with almost everyone keeping an eye on the coveted crown,
especially the driven South American beauties and some of the
African delegates.
The finals night was spectacular as the
Chinese producers and TV crew left no stone unturned to come up with
a truly spectacular show. The stage was so huge and gigantic that
the contestants were dwarfed by its sheer size. Using the latest in
laser and computer technology, the theater was transformed into a
Chinese Disneyland. But some members of the press were actually
surprised that the show looked more like a musical presentation than
a beauty pageant. The pageant proper took only a small part of the
show while international performers were flown in to entertain the
people: the international band Michael Learns to Rock, pianist
Richard Clayderman from France, Miss Tourism Queen International
’04 Zabina Khan and her troupe of 22 dancers (yes, all flown in
from Mumbai), Coco Lee and Soon Nah singing the Olympic theme song,
the world famous Shaolin Boxers from the Shaolin Temple in Henan,
plus hundreds of dancers and traditional Chinese performers.
Miss Tourism Queen International must be
the most expensive beauty pageant to mount as the organizers fly in
all the contestants, press, and media people, and take care of all
the food and accommodations. A late-bloomer in the beauty contest
field, China is finally hit by the beauty contest fever with even
the big producers like Miss World holding their competitions in the
mainland. Determined to promote the entire country as a top tourist
destination, China is succeeding by leaps and bounds through all the
events, pageants and conferences held there almost non-stop.
The Miss Tourism Queen International crown
went to Miss Peru , Silvia Vanessa Cornejo Cerna, joining the roster
of past winners from India , Greece , the Philippines (our Justine
Gabionza won the crown in 2006), and Russia Miss China Tong He, was
first runner up, followed by Miss Canada Sahar Biniaz, Miss
Montenegro Dasa Zivkovic, and Miss Japan Akemi Fukumura. Although
Miss Philippines Krystle Ann Dizon did not make it to the top 20,
she placed first runner-up to Miss Thailand as the Miss Tourism
Queen of Asia.
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