This year's Beijing International Model United Nations held in the capital had a real-world feel to it.
More than 700 students from 160 high schools and universities from countries and regions including Britain, Germany, Canada, Japan, Cambodia, Indonesia and China, participated in the 2019 Beijing International Model United Nations, held over May 23-26 by the China Foreign Affairs University.
However, what made the four-day model diplomatic event more than just a "model" this time was that the topics discussed by the delegates were inspired by several CFAU students' face-to-face conversations with senior UN officials.
"For instance, the topic 'Reform of the Dispute-solving Mechanism of the World Trade Organization' that we chose to delve into at this year's BIMUN is actually an issue that Yi Xiaozhun, the deputy director-general of the WTO talked about during our trip to its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland," says Tang Jie, president of BIMUN.
Tang was among the 10 students who won the chance to join an international youth exchange program which sent them to visit organs of the UN in Geneva and meet diplomats and UN officials in July because of their excellent performance at last year's event.
The exchange program was initiated by the Wu Jianmin Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to increase understanding between China and the rest of the world by supporting research, international exchanges and public charity.
The 10-member youth delegation visited the UN Office in Geneva, the WTO, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Telecommunication Union, the UN Refugee Agency and the UN Institute for Training and Research, according to Feng Wei, secretary-general of the Beijing-based foundation.
Feng says about the trip: "This is the first time that young Chinese got to exchange views with such high-ranking UN officials, and it was also a great opportunity to connect the model with reality, and put the theory into practice.
"And I hope they can contribute to multilateral diplomacy in the future."
Tang, who will graduate from university this summer and work for the UN Development Program's China office, says his passion for diplomacy has been nurtured by these kinds of events over the past four years.
He joined the university's Model United Nations association, the organizer of BIMUN, in 2015 and was attracted by the intense but orderly work carried out by the association.
"I busy myself in preparing and running the annual conference, making my university life very fulfilling," says Tang.
He adds that the members of the association can play different roles in the annual event, such as being delegates of countries, director or assistant director of a certain committee and also act as support staff for the conference, enhancing their leadership, critical thinking and public speaking skills.
"Through the platform provided by BIMUN, you can grow from a passive learner who is told to do research, to an assistant director who has to undertake more responsibilities to communicate with delegates from different schools and universities, then to a director who is able to independently design a committee and finally to the president who supervises the running of all the 13 committees," says Tang, a senior who has now experienced all these roles during his time at the university.
The 22-year-old has won several awards in municipal and national English oratory and debate competitions, which, he says, were a result of the knowledge and materials he digested in the process of preparing for and attending these events.
BIMUN, now one of the most influential conferences of its kind in Asia, has had a big impact on Tang's career path, and is also the reason why Spanish major Huang Wanqing chose to study at CFAU three years ago.
Huang says: "I started my Model United Nations journey as I entered high school six years ago. I really longed for the chance to take part in a conference that involved real diplomats."
For the 21-year-old, these events sparked her interest in politics and history, and motivated her to take subjects like military history and regional studies of Eastern Europe.
Besides, she also found that when she was representing a certain country at these committees, she had to make clear the country's position on the topics by studying related background information and interpreting its cultural stance, which widened her horizons and enabled her to understand and admire cultural diversity.
"The skills we use to negotiate and compromise at these events also help me get to know how to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds more efficiently in daily life," she adds.
Prak Sopheak, an international relations major from the Royal University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia who has participated in BIMUN twice, agrees.
"The event requires me to put myself into the shoes of the country that I am supposed to represent. In this way, I start to stand by the interests of the country, put forth well-founded motions and persuade other delegates to back them."
Prak says that most of the participants are from developing countries, which makes it easier for her to understand the context. And she gained a variety of perspectives by looking at the international affairs and foreign policies of other countries by exchanging views with delegates from countries such as Indonesia, Japan and Singapore.
For 19-year-old Ouyang Lu, what she learned from the event's topics engendered a wider sense of humanity and boosted her desire to improve people's well-being in underdeveloped areas.
"When searching for background information on a topic, I was often shocked by the severity of turbulence, poverty and other problems faced in some places," says the French major.
"I hope I can work for an international organization to give these people a hand and encourage more young people to join me."
Ouyang's words echo the message sent by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to BIMUN. "To achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, we need a great global mobilization that goes beyond governments, bringing people together from all walks of life and showing that international cooperation can deliver for everyone," he says.
"The voices of women and girls, and of young people, are essential. That's why the Model United Nations is so important."