More than 500 young participants from 113 institutions in roughly 20 countries and regions attend the Beijing International Model United Nations over June 8-11 at China Foreign Affairs University to learn how to manage the world as adult leaders. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Career goals

Most MUN events offer the opportunity to participants to role-play as UN diplomats in a simulated environment.

Ye Shuang recalls he was assigned to the "UN Security Council representing Russia" to deliberate on Syrian issues when he was a freshman.

"I was very nervous, and I also saw the huge gap in terms of language proficiency and background knowledge," the 22-year-old diplomacy major recalls.

"But that experience inspired me to improve my understanding of world affairs."

Ye later won the best delegate award at the BIMUN and joined the school's MUN Club.

This year, he worked as the event's secretary-general.

"I fell in love with my major because of that MUN," he says.

The experiences prompted him to set diplomacy as his career goal.

He passed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs entrance exam in his junior year.

Talking with Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made him think: "How cool it would be if I can transform from a simulated diplomat to a real one."