SUVA, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Nanise Rainima, the Miss World Fiji 2017, is keen to attend the upcoming world beauty pageant in Sanya, China.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Friday, Rainima, 25, said all her costumes and gowns, talent preparations, traditional dance practices, training and swimming sessions were completed to prepare her for the Miss World 2017 pageant scheduled to be held in Sanya, a city in China's Hainan province on Nov. 18.
As part of her preparations of travelling to China, Rainima, who is from Fiji's Tailevu province based in Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island, has taken up Mandarin social classes and hopes to use what she has learnt to get around China and even speak with the locals there as far as her Chinese language could take her.
Rainima, a bachelor of science graduate from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, was crowned Fiji's Miss Hibiscus in 2014 and represented her country to the Miss Pacific Islands pageant in the same year.
Rainima was ready for the rollercoaster ride ahead of her in the international arena.
"Preparations have been widespread. I've been having opportunities to speak at schools and events, training and dieting to prepare myself well physically," she said. "There's been talent and song recording, traditional dance practices at the Conservatorium of Music, meeting with designers and sponsors for styling, fittings and photo shoots."
As for the new format of Miss World with a "greater emphasis" on social media and interactivity, she said that one of the challenges she faces was getting the exposure she needs through social media and gathering up votes as the advantage was towards the bigger countries competing in the Miss World contest.
"I'm posting as much as I can on all my social media sites before I am leaving for China," she said, adding that she goes prepared with her message to the world about climate change, as Fiji is now the President of the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the UN Convention on Climate Change, which is to take place in Bonn, Germany, in November this year.
With Fiji as the President of COP 23 this year, the Pacific region will show the world what true climate leadership is and they will also highlight for the world what climate change in the Pacific looks like and how inaction on climate change exacerbates that threat.
Rainima believes that this year's Miss World stage will be a great platform for her to say something about the importance of climate change and urge countries to work together to deal with climate change.
