VIP treatment at Arsenal Football Club for 79-year-old Chinese grandma

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A 79-year-old grandmother from China has been named the winner of a competition to find China's biggest Premier League fan and bring them on a dream football trip to Britain.

Hong Wen Liu, known as Gunner Granny Liu, was chosen out of over 600 entries in the VisitBritain competition, run in partnership with the Premier League and Chinese broadcaster SuperSports. To enter, people had to submit videos explaining why they are China's biggest Premier League fan, with the winner decided by a public online vote in China.

Having received more than a quarter of the 32,800 votes, Arsenal fan Granny Liu is set to arrive in the UK on Friday for a football-themed trip, including VIP seats to Arsenal's Premier League match against Manchester City, a post-match meet-and-greet with players, and VIP tours of the Emirates Stadium in London and the Arsenal training ground in Hertfordshire.

VisitBritain marketing director Clare Mullin said: "Lifelong fan Granny Liu personifies the passion and loyalty that the beautiful game inspires. We are thrilled to be bringing Granny Liu to the UK, the home of football.

The competition is being run as part of VisitBritain's non-commercial partnership with the Premier League.

VisitBritain says more than 800,000 international visitors attended a Premier League football match during their trip to Britain in 2014, spending 684 million pounds (854 million US dollars).

A VisitBritain spokeswoman said: "In 2015, there were 270,000 visits from China to the UK, up 46 percent compared to 2014. Spend from Chinese visitors was 586 million pounds, up 18 percent compared to 2014 and moving China into the UK's top 10 most valuable inbound markets for the first time."

(Source: Xinhua)