SWITZERLAND: Semi-finalists in Miss China beauty pageant parade on Alpine slopes to promote Swiss tourism ahead of competition final

The Miss China Semi-Finals was held in Switzerland earlier this week to promote Swiss Tourism in China. Twelve women were selected on Tuesday (October 17) to compete in the finals that will be held in Hong Kong on October 28. The Swiss Alpine ski resort of Leysins was chosen by the Chinese TV channel Phoenix TV, who has been organising the event for the last four years. Swiss company Gao Le was also part of the event -- it's part owned by a Chinese immigrant, Yuming Yang, and Swiss businessman Pierre Kohler. They created the company in an effort to promote exchanges and partnerships between Switzerland and China. The competition organisers, Phoenix TV, selected 26 young women aged between 18 and 28 years old after a worldwide appeal to young Chinese women to take their chances in their pageant. 500 women applied for the Miss China competition and 8 of them live outside China. They came from the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Canada. The selected candidates see the competition as a journey. "Whatever happens may happen, but the most important thing for me is the experience, how I learn to get along with different people-- the experience I had here is very valuable," said contestant number 19, Liu Mong Hsin. Apart from being of Chinese origin, the organisers are looking for very educated young women to represent their country-- the contestants are expected to be university graduates or be in university. Alternatively, they should have a job. "It's intelligence more than beauty that's important -- some are 75 metres tall, some are only 1.6metres, so there's no height condition," Miss Beaute Romande Nadine Thalman said, highlighting the importance of size in European beauty contests. The 26 semi-finalists had the opportunity to spend two weeks visiting Switzerland before having to go through another selection. They visited traditional and rural parts of the country. Their trip included a visit to the Swiss Jura and a short stay in the renowned alpine ski station Saas Fee where they had traditional Swiss food. The finalists are Zi Jiao Liu, Cheng Zi Huang, Bing Yu Tong, Guang Yan Liang, Yi Ning Zhou, Jiang Lei Wang, Lin Lin Wang, Ying Xu You Lu, Tian Yuan, and Qu Yei. They will all meet again on October 28 in Hong Kong to discover who will be Miss China 2007. BEAUTY CONTESTS

ITN Source | October 21, 2006

Tags:. .phoenix. .appeal. .worldwide. .twelve. .tourism