Xiang Ao / 敖翔

Linking 'place thinking' and 'flow thinking' on the urban system: Evidence from China

Xiang is a DPhil student at the Transport Studies Unit with a focus on economic geography. His current research explores the dynamics of urban networks and industrial structures in China, and seeks to bridge “spaces of places” and “spaces of flows” in understanding industrial branching via big data and GIS techniques. Separately, he is also interested in the changing geography of listed companies and stock exchange in China.

Prior to Oxford, Xiang worked for two years as an urban data analyst for China Intelligent Urbanization Co-creation Center (CIUC) and World Urban Planning Education Network (WUPEN) under supervision of Prof. Zhiqiang (Siegfried) Wu and Prof. Otthein Herzog, where he applied visualisation and machine learning tools for urban planning projects and studies. He received his master's and bachelor's degree of engineering both from Tongji University, Shanghai.

• Ao, X., Li, Q., Schwanen, T. and Wójcik, D. (2025) Does polycentric regional development promote economic resilience? Empirical evidence from urban agglomerations in China. Journal of Economic Geography, lbaf015.