When you just come to Beijing for your China Tours, do not worry about the traffic and every strange street. When your China Flight arrivals, you can take airport express to the downtown Beijing.
The Beijing Subway is a rapid transit rail network that serves the urban and suburban districts of Beijing municipality. It is the oldest and busiest subway in mainland China, and the second longest after the Shanghai Metro. On April 30, 2010, the subway delivered a record 6.4 million rides. The existing network still cannot adequately meet the city’s mass transit needs and is undergoing rapid expansion. Overall, plans call for 19 lines and 561 km of tracks in operation by 2015. The Chinese government’s ¥4 trillion economic stimulus package has accelerated subway construction. In addition to ten lines already under construction, work is set to begin on two more lines in 2010, and the entire network will reach 420 km by 2012.
A flat fare of RMB 2.00 with unlimited transfers applies to all lines except the Airport Express, which costs ¥25. Children below 1.2m in height ride for free when accompanied by a paying adult. All lines now collect fares through automatic fare collection (AFC) machines that accept single-ride tickets and the One Card Through Card or Yikatong, an integrated circuit card (ICC card) that can store credit for multiple rides. Riders can purchase tickets and add credit to Yikatong at ticket counters and vending machines in every station. Yikatong is also accepted on many city buses, and can be used as e-money for other purchases.
The use of tickets hand checked by clerks was phased out on June 9, 2008. Before the flat fare was introduced on October 7, 2007, fares ranged from ¥3 to ¥7, depending on the line and number of transfers.
With new lines drawing more riders to the network and the fare reduction making rides more affordable, the subway has experienced severe overcrowding, especially during the rush hour. In response, the subway upgraded signal equipment to increase the frequency of trains and added to the capacity of subway trains. The minimum wait-time has been reduced to 2 min. on Line 2; 2 min. 15 sec. on Line 1; 3 min. on Lines 4, 5, 13 & Batong; 3.5 min. on Line 10; and 15 min. on the Airport Express. Lines 13 and Batong have converted 4-car to 6-car trains. Despite these efforts, during the morning rush hour, conductors at line terminals and other busy stations must routinely restrict the number of passengers who can board each train to prevent the train from becoming too crowded for passengers waiting at other stations down the line. Lines 6, 7 and 14 now under construction will reportedly have longer platforms that can accommodate 8-car trains.
Mobile phones can currently be used throughout the system, except for in the tunnels between stations on Lines 1 and 2. There are plans for all lines and stations to have cellular coverage.
To ensure public safety during the 2008 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, the subway initiated a three-month heightened security program from June 29 to September 20, 2008. Riders were subject to searches of their persons and belongings at all stations by security inspectors using metal detectors, X-Ray machines and sniffer dogs. Items banned from public transportation such as “guns, ammunition, knives, explosives, flammable and radioactive materials, and toxic chemicals” were subject to confiscation.
You can just visit chinatraveldepot.com for more information about your Travel to Beijing.
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the information is indeed very useful I would like to know what is the total number of metro trains d how many cars each train has. in the Beijing metro .Is ther a plan to induct 8 car trains ,if so on which lines