"I am determined to give China's tunnel technology a place on the international stage." Twenty-six years ago, she set this lofty ambition. Twenty-six years later, she was elected Vice President of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association with a high vote, and she now has an even greater dream——"for China to become a strong tunnelling power from a large tunnelling country as soon as possible, and to bring safe, high-quality and environmentally friendly tunnel technology to the world."

Today, in the global tunnelling engineering industry, her name has already become an international calling card!

She is Yan Jinxiu, a researcher and deputy general manager of the China Railway Academy Co., Ltd. Over the years, she has successively won the Science and Technology Special Prize of the China Railway Society, the Locomotive Medal of the Ministry of Railways, and was also named a top scientific and technological talent of the Ministry of Railways. In 2017, she was awarded the national honorary title of "March 8th Red-Banner Pacesetter."

Opening an international perspective, catching up with advanced technology

After the reform and opening up, China's tunnel engineering technology made rapid progress. The capacity to build long tunnels improved, speed increased, the level of mechanization rose, and adaptability to adverse geological conditions was also enhanced. One landmark project among them was the Dayaoshan Tunnel.

In 1984, Yan Jinxiu, who had just started working not long before, was sent to the Dayaoshan Tunnel construction site. It was then the longest tunnel in China, with a total length of 14.295 kilometers, and was regarded as the starting point of the modernization of China's tunnel engineering technology. It used the most advanced technology in China at the time, and a large number of railway elites from across the country were at the tunnel site, where a scientific research task group was also established. Although conditions at the site were very tough at the time, Yan Jinxiu regarded it as a valuable experience in her growth: "I learned what level China's tunnel construction was actually at, and how dangerous it was."

"Teacher Wang, I have an idea. I hope to work in scientific and technological information. What the Dayaoshan Tunnel made me feel is that we should take advantage of the great opportunity of the country's reform and opening up to introduce new foreign technologies." As a tunnel expert, Wang Jianyu, former president of the China Railway Southwest Research Institute, was also at the Dayaoshan Tunnel site at the time. He was Yan Jinxiu's supervisor and also her associate graduate advisor. "Introducing new foreign technologies was a weak point at the time, and there was a particular shortage of people with insight and ability to engage in scientific and technological information work. Xiao Yan's proposal coincided exactly with my own thinking at the time." From then on, Yan Jinxiu embarked on the path of scientific and technological information research, and stayed with it for decades.

Persistence and diligence are the qualities Wang Jianyu attributed to Yan Jinxiu. "As long as she is convinced that something benefits the country, she will carry it through to the end."

Combining scientific research with engineering, more than 20 of Yan Jinxiu's research topics have been related to railway tunnels, highway tunnels and subways. When domestic tunnel construction encountered major difficult problems, Yan Jinxiu would study how similar projects abroad solved them, what new methods were used, how they were designed, and how they were constructed.

Through integrated introduction and innovation, Yan Jinxiu continuously opened up new fields of tunnel research. The "Research on Risk Assessment and Control of the Yesanguan Tunnel," which she led to completion, pioneered risk assessment in China's railway tunnel engineering; the "Research on the Waterproofing and Drainage System, Waterproofing and Drainage Structures and Construction Quality Control of the Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Tunnel," which she also led to completion, played an important role in improving the performance and quality of the waterproofing and drainage system of the Jiaozhou Bay subsea tunnel……

Taking the world stage, spreading China's voice

"Now there are eight tunnels of 20 kilometers. The China Railway Academy alone has a track record of 6,000 kilometers." Wang Jianyu acknowledged frankly that China is a large tunnelling country, but not a strong tunnelling country, and its voice internationally is very small. China's tunnelling community has not had enough exchanges with the outside world. Yan Jinxiu also recognized this. In addition to introducing technology, she used the world stage to introduce China's technology to others and expand China's international influence.

In 1990, the 16th annual conference of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) was held in China for the first time. Relying on her language advantage, Yan Jinxiu became an interpreter for the conference. In the process of exchange and interpretation, she came into contact with much advanced tunnel technology from other countries and met well-known international tunnel experts. While opening her international perspective, she also saw the gap between China's tunnel technology and the world, and secretly resolved to give China's tunnel technology a place on the international stage. From then on, Yan Jinxiu embarked on an international journey.

Only with influence can one have a voice. Through her efforts, in 1999 Yan Jinxiu became a member of the International Tunnelling Association, formally representing China in international academic exchange conferences. Over the following more than 10 years, Yan Jinxiu began to stand out in the international tunnelling community. Her reports at various international academic exchange conferences often won applause from experts in the audience, and after the meetings many experts would take the initiative to seek her out for discussion.

In May 2013, at the 39th General Assembly of ITA Member Nations held in Geneva, Switzerland, Yan Jinxiu was elected an Executive Council member with a high vote, and also served as Director of the ITA Working Group on Deep and Long Tunnels. As an expert of the Technical Committee of the World Tunnel Congress, she undertook a large amount of work such as the selection of conference papers and the chairing of technical sessions; as an ITA international tunnel training expert, starting in 2014 she taught international training courses for the World Tunnel Congress for three consecutive years and was one of the most popular training experts. In 2015, ITA began organizing the annual ITA Tunnelling Awards, and Yan Jinxiu, as vice chair of the organizing committee, participated in the planning and selection of the entire event.

She never gives up any opportunity to spread China's voice. During her tenure as an ITA Executive Council member, Yan Jinxiu delivered 10 keynote reports at international conferences on behalf of ITA in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other places, making her one of the most active Executive Council members of ITA.

"Every time I attend an Executive Council meeting, I strive to give a keynote report to expand China's influence, and at the same time use the opportunity of chairing international meetings to correct incorrect criticism of China from abroad." Yan Jinxiu's efforts not only expanded the influence of China's tunnel engineering community on the world stage, but also greatly enhanced the company's international visibility.

Entering overseas markets, carrying out technology-based business

As deputy general manager of the China Railway Academy Co., Ltd., Yan Jinxiu is mainly responsible for the company's overseas work. In light of the characteristics of research enterprises, she leverages her long-accumulated technical advantages and advantages in international technical exchange to actively carry out technology-based business work.

In 2014, Yan Jinxiu organized a team to bid for and successfully win the contract for the Tasik Dam water conveyance tunnel construction project in Malaysia, achieving a zero breakthrough in the company's independent development of overseas projects. That year, the Institution of Engineers Malaysia invited Yan Jinxiu to give a lecture. During a break, while interacting with the trainees, a question from an elderly gentleman caught her attention. "What risks are there in karst tunnels? What consequences might they cause? How much does each meter cost? He asked in great detail, and with very strong specificity."

Later, she learned that this elderly gentleman was the head of a local design company. Their company was responsible for a flood discharge and water conveyance project, in which the bottleneck project was a tunnel. After grasping this information, Yan Jinxiu led her team to proactively provide them with a great deal of help and free consulting. When the project was tendered, the company successfully won the bid.

With the successful experience of the first overseas project, Yan Jinxiu's advantages in overseas business gradually became apparent. In 2015, she developed the feasibility study and preliminary design project for a Malaysian subsea tunnel, successfully signing the first overseas project since the reorganization and establishment of the China Railway Academy Co., Ltd. In 2016, good news came again from Kuala Lumpur: the monitoring task for Phase II of the Kuala Lumpur Metro, for which she organized the bid, was also successfully won.

To date, the China Railway Academy Co., Ltd. has secured six projects in Malaysia and Laos in areas such as design consulting, monitoring, testing and construction, and the enterprise's overseas business has embarked on a path of rapid development. At present, Yan Jinxiu is organizing her team to actively track a batch of overseas projects and has made important progress. Compared with 2015, the company's overseas business grew from 8.25 million yuan in 2015 to 143 million yuan in 2016, an increase of 1,633%.