Li Lina discovered a new perspective on the world during an expedition to the Antarctic last year. [China Daily]

It was in one of the most desolate places where Li Lina discovered a new view of the world - immaculate floating ice in the Antarctic gleaming of purest azure, a fleecy snow blanket molding the wildness into a smooth glaring white and waddling penguins that looked like tap dancers.

"It was the first time I'd seen and been overwhelmed by such superlative beauty of nature," said Li, who finished her postgraduate studies at Peking University early this year.

Now she feels disconsolate every time she thinks the changing climate will accelerate the melting of glaciers and destroy such a place of purity.

Bearing the threatened Antarctic scenery in mind, Li developed a keen interest in climate change and joined YOUNGO, the youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Last year she took part in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference as a leading member of China's youth delegation, the first non-governmental Chinese youth team involved in United Nations' climate talks.

While most of the youth delegates returned to focus on their careers or further studies after the conference, Li, now a full-time employee with a Beijing-based Fortune 500 company, has spent all her spare time since July assembling a new team for Cancun, Mexico, the host city for this year's UN climate summit, which starts on Monday.

"Some former colleagues can't understand my mania about it," Li said.

"Few can go through the intense pressure one more time."

Li said that in Copenhagen they were preoccupied with studying the material at night for the next day's meetings, tracking down powerful players, following all the meetings and later sorting out information and blogging to inform outsiders of what was happening.

"The tight schedule left us drenched in sweat even in last year's bone-chilling winter," Li said. "Everyone was exhausted by lengthy negotiations."

In the past few months, Li has once again busied herself in her off hours preparing for the journey to the UN climate talks to enhance the team's performance.