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Beauty contest to boost tourism in Tibet

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Miss Asia Pageant banner taken from the pageant’s official website. The pageant is produced by Asia Television Limited (ATV, a broadcast company in Hong Kong). It event was first launched in 1985. The grand finale of Miss Asia Pageant 2009 will be held on 1 November 2009.Courtesy of ‘Miss Asia’ pageant.

China will host a beauty pageant, among other activities, in Lhasa to attract more tourists to Tibet, according to China Tibet Online cited Lhasa Toursim Bureau officials as saying.

Lhasa will host the “Miss Asia” Tibet division contest, as a part of a series of cultural activities. Other planned events include the 4th Namco (Tib: Namtso) International Hiking Convention from 15 to 18 August and the annual Shoton Festival on 20 August. The pageant is also expected to be held in the same month.

Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, received 733,100 tourists in the first half of the year, up 143.21% from last year, a Lhasa Tourism Bureau official said.

Among the visitors, 28,800 are inbound tourists, a 10% increase over the same period of 2008.

From January to June, the total revenue of Lhasa’s tourism industry was 668 million yuan (97.5 millions USD), a 183.05% increase over last year. Foreign exchange earnings hit 11.58 million US dollars, a 320.57% rise.

Anti-China protests by Tibetans last spring brought a downturn in tourism, which is one of the major industries of Tibet.

The ‘Miss Asia’ pageant was launched by Asia Television Limited, a Hong Kong-based broadcaster, in 1985.

Contestants of the pageant are mainly from “the great China areas,” says the official pageant website.

The pageant is divided into three categories — Mainland China Region, Hong Kong and Macau Region and Taiwan Region.

The China region has eight contest zones, and thirty-two contestants will be selected from these zones. The Mainland final of the Mainland will be held on 13 September, while the grand finale will be carried out on 1 November.

Xinjiang’s riot-torn capital Urumqi is currently hosting a beauty contest as well, to highlight the “beauty of Xinjiang,” according to a NBC News report.

Contestants for the 35th Miss International Beauty 2009 pageant, held from 4 – 27 July, have arrived there, many of whom, according to the report, didn’t appear to know Urumqi is a riot-torn city.

Uighur protests on 5 July over the killing of two Uighurs elsewhere in China turned violent, with Uighurs clashing with police and attacking Han Chinese, leaving at least 184 dead — 137 Han, 46 Uighurs and one member of a smaller, Muslim ethic group, the Hui.

Thousands of Han Chinese protesters armed with makeshift weapons took to the streets in Urumqi seeking vengeance for the killings.

Like the Tibetans, the Uighur minority have experienced ever-increasing repression, discrimination and inequities which lead to the riots.

Copyright © 2009 Tibet Sun

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