Dismissed by some as a sexist anachronism, the Miss World Organisation is using tomorrow's 57th contest to spread the message about HIV/AIDS. It also coincides with World AIDS Day.

It is the fourth time in the past five years the event has taken place in Sanya, on the southern island province of Hainan dubbed the ‘Chinese Hawaii’.

At Sanya a tourist resort boasting palm trees that overshadow sugar-white beaches has been eked out and largely separated from the more traditional and less affluent urban areas where the local population lives.

This weekend all eyes will be focused there as Miss World 2007 will attract an estimated global audience of two billion people in more than 200 countries, according to the event's United Kingdom-based organisers.

And on Thursday the 106 contests were taking part in last-minute rehearsals ahead of the live televised final at the Beauty Crown Plaza, which was specially built for when Sanya first hosted the event in 2003.

Hopes are high here that Miss China Zhang Zi Lin, a 23-year-old secretary from Beijing will live up to her billing as a pre-contest favourite and take the crown in front of what is likely to be a partisan audience.