splash Beijing Subway

Image to the right: Passengers boarding Line 1 at Wangfujing station.

The Beijing Subway (Chinese: 北京地铁 bei jing di tie) is a fast, economical, efficient and safe means of rapid transit in China’s sprawling capital city. Trains are fast and efficient (not to mention crowded all hours of the day), stations are clean, well-lit and easy to get around, and fares remain extremely inexpensive. Having opened in 1969 as a single line with 20 stations, the system has now grown to five lines and 93 stations, with a current total of 142 kilometers of track. Many additional lines are currently either under construction or in planning stages.

Current lines

Line 1 is an east-west underground line running from Pingguoyuan station in the western suburbs to Sihui East. This line serves most of Beijing’s major points of interest, such as Tian’anmen Square, the Xidan, Dongdan and Wangfujing shopping districts, and the new Beijing Central Business District located at Guomao.

Line 2 (also known as the Loop Line) is a circular subway line serving important parts of the city’s central districts. The line connects to Line 1 at Fuxingmen and Jianguomen, to Line 5 at Yonghegong Lama Temple and Chongwenmen, and to Line 13 at Dongzhimen and Xizhimen. Most of Line 2 is located underneath Beijing’s Second Ring Road, which was originally the site of the former Beijing city wall.

Line 5, the newest line, is a north-south line running from Tiantongyuan North in the northern suburbs to Songjiazhuang in the southeastern part of the city. This line connects to Line 13 at Liushiqiao North, to Line 2 at Yonghegong Lama Temple and Chongwenmen, and to Line 1 at Dongdan. Line 5 is the first Beijing Subway line to feature platform screen doors -- underground stations have full-length glass doors, while elevated stations feature waist-high doors.

Line 13 (also known as CityRail or 城铁 cheng tie) is a so-called “light rail” line serving the suburban areas to the north of the city, with most of the line elevated or at ground level. Line 13 forms a large inverted "U" shape with the ends of the "U" at Xizhimen and Dongzhimen stations, where one may connect to Line 2. Line 13 also connects with Line 5 at Liushiqiao North. Most of the routing of Line 13 parallels existing railroad rights-of-way, except for the eastern section where it operates in the median of the Jingcheng Expressway.

The Batong Line (also known as Line 8T) is another light metro line similar to Line 13. This line connects the Bawangfen area at the eastern end of Line 1 to the urbanizing Tongzhou District in the eastern suburbs, hence the name (Bawangfen and Tongzhou.) The entire line is above ground, with much of it running in the center of the Jingtong Expressway.
Photos

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Miscellaneous

I've created a geographically-accurate map of the Beijing Subway, with station names in pinyin. This map can also be found on world.nycsubway.org. Unfortunately, I drew it before the addition of Line 5, which is not represented on the diagram. At some point in the future, I'll attempt to draw a new one.

I also recommend visiting the Beijing page on world.nycsubway.org; your webmaster provided virtually all the information and photos that can be found therein.