As evening fell, the diplomats gathered at the Shunyi District Cultural Center for an exhibition that offered a condensed portrait of a district that styles itself as the nation's front door.
Throughout the exhibition, the diplomats were exposed to a range of experiences: digital installations that brought to life the region's wetlands, waterways, and flower fields; a cultural creativity platform where intangible heritage was reimagined for contemporary life; and displays of electric vehicles, digital-scent film technology, 3D holographic avatars, and cutting-edge medical innovations.
"Green energy should be the future," Zammit says, her eyes on the electric vehicles.
"I believe that whatever China is doing in this field is a great contribution, not only to China, but also to everyone," she adds.
The culture section invited diplomats to try painting and weaving after watching a master of the fire-painted gourd craft demonstrate his art with a heated iron pen, sketching landscapes onto the surface of a dried gourd in a few swift strokes. Nearby, a practitioner of straw weaving, a craft with a history stretching back seven millennia, showed how pliable stalks can be shaped into creatures.
For many of the diplomats, the Discover China tour is not a new concept. Dario Mihelin, the Croatian ambassador, has already been on two trips to Guizhou and Jilin, two provinces that could hardly be more different in climate and terrain.
In Guizhou, he witnessed the village soccer league known as Cun Chao. In Jilin, he stood in the mountains and looked out toward the Chinese border.
"Discover China is a truly amazing program by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The whole diplomatic corps greatly appreciates it," Mihelin says.
"It provides us with a wonderful opportunity to get to know parts of China that we don't usually visit, and we find new opportunities for business cooperation, scientific cooperation, and cultural cooperation.
"What this program so elegantly does is merge all these aspects and much more, showcasing the real China outside Beijing."
Anibal Cabral, the Uruguayan ambassador, only arrived in Beijing last October, so everything is still new to him.
"I'm very impressed with the organization of the event," he says after touring the exhibition."Everything has been planned and done with passion."
Cabral has studied the itinerary for this year's program and has already shown an interest in Sichuan province in the southwest.
"You have a very ancient culture, and you keep your traditions, but you also skillfully integrate these with the new and exciting modern China," he says.
