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new Miss World was announced in Sanya on December 1. Hainan, China was fortunate to host the 57th annual event which organizers say is "the world's most-watched annual TV show, with an estimated two billion viewers".

The victor competed against 105 other contestants winning the nod from nine judges, in categories including style, fitness, intelligence and overall beauty.

The judges are also trying to decide who among them has enough talent and pizzazz to be a role model and inspiration to others.

That's because the responsibility of being Miss World entails a major year-long charity drive that brings in millions of dollars for needy causes - a fact often forgotten once the contestants hit the catwalk and the cameras start flashing.

This is a challenge to critics who condemn the event as a 'glorification of the suppression of women', or a 'sexist shindig that feeds ogling eyes'.

In actuality Miss China, who won the title of Miss World Saturday night will later spend the next 365 days trotting the globe raising money for victims of natural disasters, disease and poverty. Think about it.





At the coronation dinner Miss World 2007, China's Zhang Zilin, 23 from Beijing. Photo c/o Crowne Plaza Sanya, with kind thanks to Jessie Wang


So far the competition and ensuing charity events have seen a whopping $400 million raised during the last 25 years thanks to the theme "Beauty With A Purpose," which was created by Julia Morley the wife of the late Eric Morley, who dreamed up the event way back in 1951 London.

The event also promotes China. The contestants took part in various events like the annual Hainan Carnival Parade, as well as visiting key tourism centers such as the Panda Sanctuary in Sichuan while previewing key Olympic sites in Beijing.

But another big winner was Sanya, Hainan itself.

The seaside beach resort town has hosted four of the last five pageants. Next year it will be held in the Ukraine helping to boost that emerging nation into the world's spotlight.

Organizers chose Sanya in 2003, after the pageant was forced to flee Nigeria the previous year when rioting between Muslims and Christians killed 200 people. Chen Ci, Sanya's mayor at the time successfully secured the privilege to stage the event. `

It was a major coup for the local government, which took a gamble on an industry that was previously looked down upon. But they quickly discovered the event brought new roads and infrastructure and provided a much-needed boost for the local population who had previously struggled with poverty and skills acquisition.

Today Sanya has tourism colleges, and its own university and English and Russian languages. For outlying destinations like Baoting and the mountainside town of Wuzhishan, more travelers are making their way to stay the night or explore the local nature - in no small part thanks to Miss World.

Over the last several years the Hainan Government has actively promoted events that invigorate the local tourism industry. Sanya, twinned with the legendary French city of Cannes, now also holds an annual film and jazz festival. It will also be on the Olympic Torch relay route.

With excellent golfing facilities now established, and a new luxury cruise marina called Phoenix Island completed, the organizers and locals who supported the Miss World contest have helped leverage the former sleepy fishing village into a thriving paradise.

Also, in a short time, local carrier Hainan Airlines has become a major player domestically in China. There are connecting flights for passengers traveling to sunny Hainan from places as far as Hungary, South Korea, Japan and the UK. Just last week Hainan Group announced it was launching a new carrier, Grand China Air.

It may be difficult to fully comprehend the benefits of holding Miss World in a place like Sanya. To dismiss it as another example of the exploitation of women or as the death knell for locals who are now experiencing unprecedented development is to ignore the complexities and positive outcomes that have resulted since 2003.

Fireworks exploded over Sanya, a beach resort on Hainan Island off China's south coast, as news of Miss Zhang's win emerged.

But until her victory, the atmosphere inside the ￡6 million, purpose-built Beauty Crown theatre had been more subdued than electric.

The audience of around 2,000, including many families, had paid 800 RMB (￡52) a ticket, putting the event out of reach of ordinary Chinese, while there was a heavy police presence inside the auditorium. None of Britain's four contestants reached the semi-final stage.

Since it was first held in Sanya in 2003, Miss World has become an invaluable publicity vehicle for the Chinese government. With a global television audience of more than two billion, according to organisers, it is one of the most-watched events on the planet.

This year, contestants helped promote the 2008 Beijing Olympics by singing the official anthem of the Olympic torch relay.

"We were asked to do it and we were happy to be part of it.

advertisementThey didn't say, 'You have to do it'," said Julia Morley, the chairman of the Miss World Organisation.

The arrival of Miss World in China has created a craze for beauty pageants, after more than 50 years of being banned by the Communist Party as decadent and demeaning to women.

As recently as 2002, police closed down the Miss China competition, saying it was not officially licensed.

Now, there are contests across China almost monthly, including Miss Artificial Beauty, for women who have had plastic surgery, and others for pensioners.

A business administration graduate and part-time model, Miss Zhang is one of the thousands of young Chinese women who were inspired to enter beauty pageants after Miss World came to Sanya.

"I think it is just a dream to be here," she told The Sunday Telegraph a few hours before her win.

"When I was 18, I watched Miss World when it was first held in China and I thought it was fantastic. I knew then I wanted to be part of it."

She had just three days to prepare for the month-long competition, which was held on World Aids Day and included a video message from Nelson Mandela promoting HIV awareness, having only become Miss China at the end of October.

Unlike the Miss World contests of old, contestants are no longer judged solely on their looks in a bikini.

During the month-long competition they were put through sporting and singing tests.

All 106 did appear briefly in bikinis, but they spent much longer in elaborate, designer gowns.

Miss Zhang won over the judges, who included former tennis player Annabel Croft and singer Duncan James, by expressing her desire to help promote the Beijing Olympics and to bring glory to her country. "I think education is more important that being beautiful," she told The Sunday Telegraph.

Now, she believes she is the envy of most Chinese women.

"Miss World is very famous in China. I think deep down a lot of girls would like to take part in it," said Miss Zhang, who at 182 cms (5ft 11 and a half inches) was the tallest of this year's contestants.

Such sentiments are music to Mrs Morley's ears.

A determined Londoner, she is the guiding light behind the contest, which was originally launched by her late husband Eric Morley in 1951 and remains enormously popular in Asia and South America.

She claims it has gone from strength to strength since the disastrous 2002 event, during which the contestants had to flee Nigeria after riots by Muslims protesting against it left 250 people dead.

The annual arrival of 100 beauty queens from around the globe has helped turn Sanya and Hainan Island into a booming tourist destination.

For hundreds of years, it was feared as the place where China's emperors exiled those who had displeased them.

Now, it receives 16 million visitors a year, including more than half a million foreigners and is being promoted as the Hawaii of the Orient.

In April, Sanya's director of tourism revealed the area had experienced an 83 per cent increase in international tourists since it first staged Miss World.

"It's been a huge boost to their tourism and construction industries," said Mrs Morley.

"They were so happy the property developers offered me a house. I said I'd rather have a children's home for one of our charities, and so they built one."

Sanya's beaches have proved more popular with the contestants than Beijing, where they were taken to pose on the Great Wall and to attend a ball in aid of the Red Cross at the Great Hall of the People.

"To be honest, I prefer Sanya. Beijing was cold," said Miss England, Georgia Horsley.

Isolated in a hotel with the other contestants, the 20 year-old from North Yorkshire hasn't had much contact with the locals.

"I've not had much chance to speak to many Chinese. But I like China more