First Chinese Miss World.... Coincidence?? 2008 Olympics??

It's an odd feeling, waiting to meet the most beautiful woman in the world. There's a certain amount of excitement, obviously, but also some apprehension - a suspicion that like so many Miss Worlds before her Zilin Zhang won't be a patch on the girl who mops the tables at the local greasy spoon. Add to this that Zhang's victory in December came accompanied by dark rumours that it was a stitch-up to coincide with this year's Olympic Games in Beijing - she is the first Chinese woman ever to win Miss World - and the apprehensions grow thicker still.

Six months ago, her life could hardly have been more different. Then she was just an average, if at 5ft 11in unusually tall, Beijing business-administration graduate who was working as a company secretary. 'But somewhere inside my head I had a great beauty dream,' she says. 'Back in 2003, when I was 19, I watched Miss World on television. It was the first year that China had hosted the competition. I thought everything about it was fantastic - the girls, the clothes. And especially the charity,' she adds hurriedly. Miss World has long had a keen charitable side, and every incumbent is expected to devote much of her reign to good works. 'At the same time I never thought I could win Miss World. That seemed crazy to me. But, as I say, that was when my great beauty dream started.'
Read more
All I can say is Congratulations.