Yan Jinxiu, deputy general manager of China Railway Academy (CRA) and ITA Vice President is one of the few women experts in China's tunnelconstruction sector. Yan has worked in the industry for 33 years, during which she has not only realized her value as an

executive, but she has also helped China's tunnel-construction technologies evolve into world-class technologies.

Early Years

Yan in 1984 began working as a researcher at the China Railway Southwest Institute (CRSI), after she graduated from Chengdu University of Technology. The construction of the Dayao Mountain Tunnel was the first big project on which she

participated.

Tunnel-construction technology advanced rapidly in China during the 1980s. Chinese improved the technologies used to construct long tunnels. As a result, Chinese took less time than previous to construct tunnels. Tunnel construction was

mechanized in China, and Chinese could construct tunnels through mountains that had bad geological conditions.