Hangzhou, China – When Alexandra Deal, 19, entered the Luyu Resort in Hangzhou, China, as the Miss Bahamas representative in the 2007 Miss Tourism Queen International Beauty Pageant, she received the biggest applause of all the 150 contestants in the competition.

In fact, instead of giving her one welcome necklace like all the other girls, Deal, her eyes wide and a big smile on her face, accepted the two necklaces given to her as a symbol of the welcoming committee's appreciation of her presence at the event.

And this was just the beginning. Later on that night, as the blond-haired, green eyed girl strutted down the catwalk in a stunning gold evening gown during a brief fashion show for the locals, she also created a ripple of awareness in the crowd. A good sign for a girl who already claimed the crown as her own.
"I feel that I have a strong chance of winning," Deal said. "If I don't win, I'll definitely make it in the top 20."
And that is no easy feat in a competition where nearly 150 girls have flown from all over the world to take the crown back to their homeland.

Sixteen finalists were selected from 39 contestants for the 2007 Miss Jamaica World title at a private 'selection' last Wednesday. This year, prospective contestants were asked to submit applications via the Internet along with photographs.

Twenty-five applicants were invited to attend the private selection at Spartan Health Club on Wednesday. On that day, numbers swelled to 39.

The judges for the event were: Tommy James, who this year will again be chief judge for the pageant finals, 

Laurel DeMercado, Shirley Hanna, Shienne Holman, Marcel Robinson of Interlinc Communications, Uzuri's Karl Williams and pageant promoter Mickey Haughton-James.

XI TANG, China – The locals stared as the woman with the cocoa-colored skin sauntering down the street, smiling and waving at each one of them as they gaze at her in amazement.

The children, unaware of their actions, run up close to her, touching and smelling and laughing, as if they are wondering if she will also taste like the dark chocolate her skin so strikingly resembles.

But, with her head held high and an unworried look on her face, she continued on her way, as if this was just another day of being a black person in the People's Republic of China.

"They look at me and I look right back at them, they take a picture of me and I take one of them," said Anisa Abdilahi, the Miss Somalia representative in the 2007 Miss Tourism Queen International Beauty Pageant taking place in China this month.

Despite the fact that China is considered an emerging superpower with some of the world's cutting-edge technology being made in the country, China, in some ways, is still far behind the rest of the world.