Xinya Liu, Weitzman Masters in City & Regional Planning ’25, China, Tianjin
This summer, I had the opportunity to intern at Railway Design Corporation, the largest transportation infrastructure design institute in China. This company is responsible for the survey and design of high-speed railways, subways, light rail, and highways in China, as well as in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Hungary, and Pakistan. Their work also includes the design of large-scale integrated transportation hubs and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) projects, which align closely with my future career goals.
This internship was quite different from my previous experiences at other companies, where my work was mainly related to land use and urban planning. This time, I focused on station planning and design. The design process not only involved conducting research and design work in the office, but also required extensive communication and interaction with colleagues and stakeholders. During this internship, I participated in the preliminary stages of a project, which involved conducting on-site investigations around stations slated for renovation, examining the relationship between the station and the surrounding area, and understanding the current challenges in traffic flow. After organizing the on-site data, we communicated the project proposal with the client. Learning how to effectively communicate with clients and people unfamiliar with planning, and how to efficiently present the project to them while gathering their feedback, gave me a comprehensive understanding of the planning process in the early stages of a project.
This internship significantly enhanced my personal abilities. Previously, my studies focused more on macro-level planning, and I had little knowledge of station planning, which is on a relatively smaller scale. This internship allowed me to delve deeper into the planning and design of individual buildings and small plots. It was also my first time learning station modeling and small-scale landscape planning around the station. Initially, I was not very proficient with the software, and some of it I was using for the first time. I am extremely grateful to my colleagues and team members for their tremendous help. By the end of the internship, I was able to independently complete station facade designs, station square landscape planning, and rendering of visualizations.
During this internship, I was exposed to work that I had not encountered before. I am very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the specific research work of the project and to learn many skills from my colleagues. This experience has strengthened my determination to continue pursuing studies in the planning field. Moreover, I plan to focus not only on large-scale planning but also on smaller areas and individual building planning in my future studies.
his is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2024 GAPSA Summer Internship Funding Program that is coordinated by Penn Career Services. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here.
