[Sing Pao]

The 18 contestants for this year's Miss Hong Kong Pageant have set out to Kenya in Africa for location filming, but before they left a blessing ceremony was held at TVB City. At the airport, only the family members of 1 Queenie Chu was there to see them off and there was a scene of unwilling separation between mother and daughter. 5 Cecilia Yeung found popularity among the tourists as they asked for autographs and handshakes, but eventually she only agreed to shaking hands with them.

Queenie's parents arrived to see her off at the airport and when they had a photo taken, her mother was moved to tears, leading Queenie to burst out crying as well. Faced with a barrage of flashes from the media, Queenie immediately said: "Don't be mistaken, I am not looking to create news!" She also introduced her parents to the other contestants and indicated that her stepfather is Japanese, but she cannot speak Japanese, but other contestants began speaking to him in Japanese. She also reveals that her family are very emotional and she is the only daughter in the family, so whenever she goes away to study or when she returns to Hong Kong to visit her family, she will always cry when she sees her parents.

Yesterday's appearance by the Miss HK contestants created quite an atmosphere at the airport, especially with the tourists from the mainland who stopped to watch the girls. Among them, Cecilia was stopped as she fixed her luggage by two or three tourists who asked to shake her hand and for an autograph, praising her beauty. Also 11 Devily Leung was seen eating chocolate at the airport and as soon as she saw the cameras, she turned away guiltily.

The 18 girls have prepared a lot of anti-sun products, medication and snacks for their African trip. 4 Jaymee Tang had her purse stolen on the MTR earlier, losing her ID card and a few thousand dollars in cash. At first she was worried that this would affect the trip, but afterwards the assistants told her that she would still be able to travel with her passport and this put her mind at rest. She says: "I have already stopped all my credit cards, so I will just be using cash on the trip to Kenya and so will need to be careful. My mother warned me on the phone to be careful." 8 Winnie Shum was suffering from a cold, but luckily it was not too serious and she should be able to handle the trip. 2 Irene Yu indicates she is ready to face the tight schedules of the trip and doesn't mind the hard work as long as it comes out beautiful.

TVB production manager Wong Ka Leung indicates that the trip is designed to promote teamwork and experience the hard work, but he beleives the girls will get through it. Producer Wai Sai Fai indicates that there will be six special shows before the final and the Kenya shoot will form the first one. In the music video, Gigi Leung will play the director, training the girls and directing them to complete the shoot. He indicates that the shoot will take part in a location in Kenya that is 5000m above sea level and when the researchers descended the waterfall earlier, the rapid fall in altitude left them rather unwell, so they will have to reconsider whether to let the girls try this. Also the organisers have employed some marksmen to travel with the group as the long grasses can hide the animals and the research trip vehicle knocked over many sheep and oxen.

http://www.singpao.com/20040530/gossip/558101.html