[Sing Pao]

This year's contestants for Miss Chinese International have arrived in Dalian and begun filming on location. As the weather has been very cold there, falling to minus five degrees C, many of the contestants are not looking their best and are being criticised by local female police officers as being 'not pretty enough'.

The twenty one girls arrived in Dalian and after a night resting in the 21st Century Hotel, they set out bright and early yesterday wearing riding gear for their first day of filming. The main theme of the shoot was riding and the organisers had arranged for the shoot at the local female mounted police training school and the first to take the reins were Number 1 Li Qian from Brisbane, Number 7 Linda Tomko from Seattle, Number 11 Lee Chiu Ting from Auckland and Number 16 Sarina Lee from Toronto. As the contestants had little riding experience, they needed assistance from the police officerss to mount the horses, but Number 1 was so clumsy in that she could not get onto the horse at all. As for Number 11, she was so concerned about mounting the horse, she didn't even realise that the cold had made certain parts of her body 'stick out'. The officers were full of criticisms for the contestants, saying that the girls were not as tall or as pretty as they were.

In response to the comments, Number 16 Sarina admitted that the police officers were very pretty and tall, so their criticisms were valid. Number 8 Chui Ching Kit indicated that she heard the opposite: "I heard them say that the contestants were mostly very pretty." As for Mandy Cho, she felt that they were probably just trying to stir up some atmosphere.

The clumsy Li Qian laughed that this was the first time she had ridden a horse, so of course she would be a little clumsy. As for the comments she was not pretty, she smiled: "Let them laugh, I will not mind." 'Sticking out' Lee Chiu Ting laughed that everyone was looking too closely and she did not feel embarrassed about it.

http://www.singpao.com/20040105/gossip/499228.html