Human Mobility & Travel Behavior
Analyzing how people structure their daily movements and what shapes destination choices across urban and rural contexts.
Growing up in rural Guizhou, China, I was first appointed class leader at age six — not because anyone asked if I wanted to, but because someone had to. That sense of stewardship has shaped everything since. When I volunteered for typhoon cleanup at my university in Xiamen and stood among uprooted trees and damaged streets for the first time, I felt the raw tension between nature's force and the fragile city we call home. That moment became a compass.
My research journey has taken me from tourism geography to ecological network construction, from land-use spatial planning across China's provinces to analyzing human mobility patterns with federal survey data in California. What looks like a winding path is, in fact, a deepening question: how does spatial structure shape outcomes — for people, for ecosystems, for the communities we build?
"I don't want human beings to pollute beautiful garden cities. I don't want haze to cover the blue sky! I am on the right track to protect mother earth!"
— Personal Statement
