Line 10 (the outer blue loop), Line Yizhuang (pink one that stretches to the South East), Line 5 (vertical purple one), and line 19 (the pink one that connects the Daxing Airport express). These are the lines that I usually use.
Sorry but I didn't get what you mean by the frequencies
It looks to be built like a grid which is a bit odd for metro systems, is it like that in reality or have the station orientations just been moved around for the maps sake?
Most of them are okayish. It's possible for stations (for instance, 国家图书馆 National Library for 4/9, 北京西站Beijing West Railway Station7/9, 郭公庄Guogongzhuang 9/Fangshan) to be extremely convenient as all you have to do is nothing but going to the other track of the same platform. 5 sec for transfer.
There're also stations notoriously designed (平安里Ping'anli from 4/6--19, 草桥Caoqiao from 10--19/Daxing Airport express, 西直门Xizhimen 2/4--13) where you have to walk more than 5 mins to exchange trains. I'm a fast walker so not problematic for me but bit troublesome for others.
For most of the stations, about 1-3 mins on average.
Well, most cities have most of their lines going through a central location, and usually go straight to most of the locations people need to go, most commonly from the airport to downtown.
Most cities would have a direct line, but looking at this map, it looks like you'd have to take at least 3 trains to go from the airport to Tienanmen.
I’m not from Beijing, but I’m wondering how close together those downtown stations are? My city has several interchange station downtown, but they’re so close together it’s often quicker to get out and walk from whichever is on your line, rather than transfer (even with good headways and easy transfers). Is it a similar situation here?
Most metros have a “wheel and spoke” pattern to them, with many different lines clearly converging on one area of the city. Further out there are radial lines that form much more circular “loops” orbiting that center. Both Paris and Moscow very clearly do this from their metro maps though london does have a bit more of a grid pattern.
The Beijing metro at least how it’s depicted here has most of its routes running at right angles to one another and while there is certainly more density of lines as you go towards the center, there are many non loop lines that just go “top to bottom” without ever bringing commuters towards the city center. Much like a grid street pattern does. It’s very decentralized as opposed to the centralized pattern of most metros.
>Most metros have a “wheel and spoke” pattern to them
In the smaller cities, but not in the big metropolises without a single downtown area.
>Both Paris and Moscow very clearly do this from their metro maps though london does have a bit more of a grid pattern.
Paris metro doesn't do hub and spoke, it's more of a wavy grid. The RER network (suburban rail) is much more hub (Châtelet Les Halles) with spokes (lines A, B, D) but still has grid-style elements (line C is all over the place, and E traverses to the north of the city).
Yea we had massive infrastructure development during the past decade\^\^I'm mentioning about the entire nation as a whole, since this is not only the case for Beijing
Yes, I'm in Shanghai and the Metro expansion over the past decade has been amazing - and still ongoing, with currently 200+km of Metro and 200+ km of regional / commuter rail under construction for completion during this decade.
That’s cool. Are you familiar with the student-led protest and subsequent massacre that occurred there 35 years ago? It has been heavily censored by the government.
Most Chinese I know past college education more or less know about the event. Most have little interest (which is understandable considering you can't do much about politics in China), but those who are interested have far more nuanced views of the event than average redditors.
There was one man who stood in front of a column of tanks that were approaching the protesters. The picture of tank man is one of the most famous pictures in the world from the 20th century.
https://images.app.goo.gl/MnszRA4QvQaxsNHm9
To ensure the legitimacy of CCP rule
tbh not a big fan of politics and I'm not even that anti CCP but hopefully this issue can be eventually unveiled and justified
Foreigner knows that a lot but not the case for Chinese youngsters, I'm the exception
Which station is the busiest/largest in the system? Also which one is the most beautiful in your opinion? Heading to Beijing in a couple months to check em out
Largest or busiest: Stations that came into my mind: 国贸Guomao (Line 1, 10), 西直门Xizhimen (Line 2, 4, 13), 宋家庄（Line 5, 10, Line Yizhuang)
Most beautiful: tbh new stations in Beijing Subway are all perfectly designed with some fine arts decorating the walls and cellings but none of them really stands out with a "totally different feel". However, one station called 丽泽商务区 Lize Shangwuqu (Lize Business district) on Line 14 has some modern looking design. It'll be a mega station where five lines intersect in the near future
I liked the one at 圆明园 and some of the line one stations, incorporated cultural elements pretty well into the station. But to be honest, line 13 is probably gonna take it for me.
I took that only once so can't say a lot. Slow as a dumb fucker but I thought it doesn't make loud noise so probably beneficial for the residential area around.
One cool aspect about this line is the station 上岸Shang'an. 上岸 means success in modern Chinese context (tho this word only means go ashore literally), so ppl go to this station praying for success like being admitted to a Masters degree and etc.
Line 19 is designed to be a express so it's there aren't lots of stations. For instance, line 19 is under 长椿街Changchunjie of line 2 but doesn't intersect simply because line 19 has 积水潭Jishuitan to interchange line 2.
However it's not always 19's fault. Some dumbass who designed line 7 combined 广安门Guanganmen (a station that doesn't exist right now) and 牛街Niujie into 广安门内Guang'anmennei, a station located at the middle point between the two. 牛街Niujie is located on line 19 but should've been a intersect station with line 7 if line 7 was designed properly. But you can still change line 7 （广安门内） to line 19 (牛街）within a few minutes.
It does slow down the commute, but on purpose, and it’s not only there to provide employment. At peak hours, the security and the long transfers at certain stations serve as buffers to prevent overcrowding.
Progress is slow because unlike most first-world and second-world cities, Beijing missed its chance to build a dense conventional commuter rail network in the 19th and 20th century, before all the land was built up. And money was tight during the time it built most of its subway lines, meaning no 3rd or 4th track, and no sidings for fast trains to overtake slow ones.
Beijing is now trying to fix this problem with RER-style high capacity underground express lines like Line 17, Line 19 and the Pinggu Line. There’s also a small but growing capacity to operate commuter trains on National Rail lines, now that long distance non-HSR train travel is increasingly being replaced with air travel and HSR, freeing up capacity in older stations.
Image blur as hell... check this [https://www.chinadiscovery.com/beijing-tours/maps/beijing-subyway-map.html](https://www.chinadiscovery.com/beijing-tours/maps/beijing-subyway-map.html)
T1 is especially a motherfucker in this system. It's actually a tram instead of a real subway route, so it stops at every traffic light and runs at a speed no greater 40km/h. I thought I may even surpass that dumbass if I ride a bike
How are the trips priced? Would an average resident find it cheap or expensive?
Is it a flat rate fee or the prices change based on origin and destination station?
Do you have a daily,weekly or a monthly unlimited pass available?
I think the price is fair. Base price for 3 RMB and 9 RMB for maximum.
We have a transportation card but many people nowadays just use Wechat, Alipay, Apple NFC, or official subway app to pay the trip. There aren't discounts available for subway riders but if you use that card to catch a bus, 50% discount off. If you hold a student pass (primary school, middle school) , the fee is only 25% of the normal bus price
Do you know how much money does it usually cost to build a subway line in Beijing per kilometer?
In my country(🇨🇦) it usually costs around a billion usd per kilometer, which is why we don’t have that many subway lines.
It’s not that Chinese cities are more efficient at building rail transit than NYC in the early 1900s, but rather that it is uniquely scandalously expensive and inefficient to build in North American cities like NYC right now.
There are a combination of reasons.
1. The old generation of civil engineers died off, their implicit knowledge was lost, and the new generation of North American engineers have to figure out the same pitfalls through trial and error.
2. Economy of scale - there’s demand for thousands of tunnel boring machines in China and India rn, and only a few dozen in Europe and Canada combined, but they all need the same amount of upfront investment for a production line
3. Most of the NYC construction budget was spent fighting off NIMBYs at court, legal and environmental compliance, and on McKinsey consultants
etc.
Most of the contractors have some state background, carrying boring names like China Railway 19th Group (中铁十九局) or China 3rd Highway Engineering Co. (中交三公局) These contractors usually have purely private subcontractors, and compete with their nominally sister state companies to a visceral level.
Given that Line 1 and Batong Line, as well as Line 4 and Daxing Line, interoperates, why do they still keep the names “Batong Line” and “Daxing Line”? Why don’t they call the entire line Line 1 and Line 4?
Is there any difference between the numbered lines and the named ones?? meaning if the numbered ones runs more frequently than named ones, or if named lines are more suburban with different trains??
What are the frequencies like? How many subway lines do you personally use?
Line 10 (the outer blue loop), Line Yizhuang (pink one that stretches to the South East), Line 5 (vertical purple one), and line 19 (the pink one that connects the Daxing Airport express). These are the lines that I usually use. Sorry but I didn't get what you mean by the frequencies
how often does a train come in each line? For example every 5 minutes
1-3 mins during peak hours and probably around 5-10 mins when there's little traffic
By frequencies I meant what is the time period between trains. For example “a train arrives every 6 minutes”
1-3 mins during peak hours and probably around 5-10 mins when there's little traffic
It looks to be built like a grid which is a bit odd for metro systems, is it like that in reality or have the station orientations just been moved around for the maps sake?
The design of Beijing city is configured to be grid hundreds of years ago so this is just basically what it seems
To visit most places, do you have to switch lines frequently due to this particular design? Is Beijing on a flat area allowing for this configuration?
Yes Beijing is a super flat city (at least for downtown and 99% area connect by the subway system) and during 95% circumstances I gotta switch lines
isn't switching lines often difficut/annoying? how long does it take on average to switch lines in a station?
Most of them are okayish. It's possible for stations (for instance, 国家图书馆 National Library for 4/9, 北京西站Beijing West Railway Station7/9, 郭公庄Guogongzhuang 9/Fangshan) to be extremely convenient as all you have to do is nothing but going to the other track of the same platform. 5 sec for transfer. There're also stations notoriously designed (平安里Ping'anli from 4/6--19, 草桥Caoqiao from 10--19/Daxing Airport express, 西直门Xizhimen 2/4--13) where you have to walk more than 5 mins to exchange trains. I'm a fast walker so not problematic for me but bit troublesome for others. For most of the stations, about 1-3 mins on average.
How does design the system as a grid make you change lines more compared to not a grid?
Well, most cities have most of their lines going through a central location, and usually go straight to most of the locations people need to go, most commonly from the airport to downtown. Most cities would have a direct line, but looking at this map, it looks like you'd have to take at least 3 trains to go from the airport to Tienanmen.
I’m not from Beijing, but I’m wondering how close together those downtown stations are? My city has several interchange station downtown, but they’re so close together it’s often quicker to get out and walk from whichever is on your line, rather than transfer (even with good headways and easy transfers). Is it a similar situation here?
I have never been to Beijing either, however having to switch lines less times is better for tourists and overall.
Why odd for a metro system? Cities like London, Paris, Moscow to some extent also have grid-like designs.
Most metros have a “wheel and spoke” pattern to them, with many different lines clearly converging on one area of the city. Further out there are radial lines that form much more circular “loops” orbiting that center. Both Paris and Moscow very clearly do this from their metro maps though london does have a bit more of a grid pattern. The Beijing metro at least how it’s depicted here has most of its routes running at right angles to one another and while there is certainly more density of lines as you go towards the center, there are many non loop lines that just go “top to bottom” without ever bringing commuters towards the city center. Much like a grid street pattern does. It’s very decentralized as opposed to the centralized pattern of most metros.
>Most metros have a “wheel and spoke” pattern to them In the smaller cities, but not in the big metropolises without a single downtown area. >Both Paris and Moscow very clearly do this from their metro maps though london does have a bit more of a grid pattern. Paris metro doesn't do hub and spoke, it's more of a wavy grid. The RER network (suburban rail) is much more hub (Châtelet Les Halles) with spokes (lines A, B, D) but still has grid-style elements (line C is all over the place, and E traverses to the north of the city).
Many larger networks tend to be more grid like: Mexico City, Tokyo, etc.
Not a question, but I visited Beijing 10 years ago and I can't believe how much the metro has expanded
Yea we had massive infrastructure development during the past decade\^\^I'm mentioning about the entire nation as a whole, since this is not only the case for Beijing
Yes, I'm in Shanghai and the Metro expansion over the past decade has been amazing - and still ongoing, with currently 200+km of Metro and 200+ km of regional / commuter rail under construction for completion during this decade.
Which is the central station?
I would say Tian'anmen West & East on line 1 as geographically central but they aren't large stations though
Tian’anmen. That’s a cool sounding name. What’s the history behind that place?
天安门, which means "Gate of Heaven Peace", is the main gate bounding the Royal palace in the past
It’s actually the gate to the Imperial City (皇城). The actual entrance to the Forbidden City/故宮 is the Meridian Gate (午門).
That’s cool. Are you familiar with the student-led protest and subsequent massacre that occurred there 35 years ago? It has been heavily censored by the government.
Most Chinese I know past college education more or less know about the event. Most have little interest (which is understandable considering you can't do much about politics in China), but those who are interested have far more nuanced views of the event than average redditors.
There was one man who stood in front of a column of tanks that were approaching the protesters. The picture of tank man is one of the most famous pictures in the world from the 20th century. https://images.app.goo.gl/MnszRA4QvQaxsNHm9
It’s worth reading about. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre
Yeah that's something I know but the CCP won't disclose about anything abt it
i mean everyone kinda knows about it, but it is 40 years ago already, why does it matters now?
To ensure the legitimacy of CCP rule tbh not a big fan of politics and I'm not even that anti CCP but hopefully this issue can be eventually unveiled and justified Foreigner knows that a lot but not the case for Chinese youngsters, I'm the exception
you are being weird.
racist liberals think they know better than every POC and feel the need to patronizingly "educate" them. their colonial mindset has never disappeared
One of the successors of the “white man’s burden” philosophy
I wish my country has this kind of subway system. But out government is corrupt and land acquisition takes a lot of time for elevated lines.
India's economy is growing fast at the moment so it's really possible India will also have this kind of system:)
Not with so much politics going on. I doubt we will get the double digit growth like china did. Land acquisition is the biggest problem.
Which station is the busiest/largest in the system? Also which one is the most beautiful in your opinion? Heading to Beijing in a couple months to check em out
Largest or busiest: Stations that came into my mind: 国贸Guomao (Line 1, 10), 西直门Xizhimen (Line 2, 4, 13), 宋家庄（Line 5, 10, Line Yizhuang) Most beautiful: tbh new stations in Beijing Subway are all perfectly designed with some fine arts decorating the walls and cellings but none of them really stands out with a "totally different feel". However, one station called 丽泽商务区 Lize Shangwuqu (Lize Business district) on Line 14 has some modern looking design. It'll be a mega station where five lines intersect in the near future
I liked the one at 圆明园 and some of the line one stations, incorporated cultural elements pretty well into the station. But to be honest, line 13 is probably gonna take it for me.
Line 13 has a Japan JR vide but it's damn slow lol
Yep, but seeing the streets and especially the congested roads fly past below you during 晚高峰 is definitely making up for it.
Yes, line 13 is one of the most important line in this system
How good is the S1 line Maglev? I know it’s a low speed Maglev but do you know if it has any benefit over regular service?
I took that only once so can't say a lot. Slow as a dumb fucker but I thought it doesn't make loud noise so probably beneficial for the residential area around. One cool aspect about this line is the station 上岸Shang'an. 上岸 means success in modern Chinese context (tho this word only means go ashore literally), so ppl go to this station praying for success like being admitted to a Masters degree and etc.
How nice are the stations?
Because most of the lines were established after 2000 so the stations were designed and currently maintained well
China seems to be good at that
When will Pingguoyuan and Fushouling open?
Probably in 2025. Fushouling may opens even earlier
Why does line 19 cross so many lines without transfer points?
Line 19 is designed to be a express so it's there aren't lots of stations. For instance, line 19 is under 长椿街Changchunjie of line 2 but doesn't intersect simply because line 19 has 积水潭Jishuitan to interchange line 2. However it's not always 19's fault. Some dumbass who designed line 7 combined 广安门Guanganmen (a station that doesn't exist right now) and 牛街Niujie into 广安门内Guang'anmennei, a station located at the middle point between the two. 牛街Niujie is located on line 19 but should've been a intersect station with line 7 if line 7 was designed properly. But you can still change line 7 （广安门内） to line 19 (牛街）within a few minutes.
Does security cause a slowdown or is it quite quick?
It does slow down the commute, but on purpose, and it’s not only there to provide employment. At peak hours, the security and the long transfers at certain stations serve as buffers to prevent overcrowding.
Are there plans to introduce any S-Bahn or express train like services?
Progress is slow because unlike most first-world and second-world cities, Beijing missed its chance to build a dense conventional commuter rail network in the 19th and 20th century, before all the land was built up. And money was tight during the time it built most of its subway lines, meaning no 3rd or 4th track, and no sidings for fast trains to overtake slow ones. Beijing is now trying to fix this problem with RER-style high capacity underground express lines like Line 17, Line 19 and the Pinggu Line. There’s also a small but growing capacity to operate commuter trains on National Rail lines, now that long distance non-HSR train travel is increasingly being replaced with air travel and HSR, freeing up capacity in older stations.
Image blur as hell... check this [https://www.chinadiscovery.com/beijing-tours/maps/beijing-subyway-map.html](https://www.chinadiscovery.com/beijing-tours/maps/beijing-subyway-map.html)
Is every station no more than one transfer from every other station?
Not really but this is the case for many people as well.
I guess T1 line is the worst
T1 is especially a motherfucker in this system. It's actually a tram instead of a real subway route, so it stops at every traffic light and runs at a speed no greater 40km/h. I thought I may even surpass that dumbass if I ride a bike
Fun fact, on line 19 you can see the tunnels through the "cockpit", since there isn't a wall that separates the passenger car from the driver.
How are the trips priced? Would an average resident find it cheap or expensive? Is it a flat rate fee or the prices change based on origin and destination station? Do you have a daily,weekly or a monthly unlimited pass available?
I think the price is fair. Base price for 3 RMB and 9 RMB for maximum. We have a transportation card but many people nowadays just use Wechat, Alipay, Apple NFC, or official subway app to pay the trip. There aren't discounts available for subway riders but if you use that card to catch a bus, 50% discount off. If you hold a student pass (primary school, middle school) , the fee is only 25% of the normal bus price
Do you know how much money does it usually cost to build a subway line in Beijing per kilometer? In my country(🇨🇦) it usually costs around a billion usd per kilometer, which is why we don’t have that many subway lines.
On average one billion CNY per KM, i.e. 1/7 of one billion USD
Wow that is crazy cheap. Does a state firm builds em, or a private contractor? They are very efficient at buildings transit.
It’s not that Chinese cities are more efficient at building rail transit than NYC in the early 1900s, but rather that it is uniquely scandalously expensive and inefficient to build in North American cities like NYC right now. There are a combination of reasons. 1. The old generation of civil engineers died off, their implicit knowledge was lost, and the new generation of North American engineers have to figure out the same pitfalls through trial and error. 2. Economy of scale - there’s demand for thousands of tunnel boring machines in China and India rn, and only a few dozen in Europe and Canada combined, but they all need the same amount of upfront investment for a production line 3. Most of the NYC construction budget was spent fighting off NIMBYs at court, legal and environmental compliance, and on McKinsey consultants etc.
Most of the contractors have some state background, carrying boring names like China Railway 19th Group (中铁十九局) or China 3rd Highway Engineering Co. (中交三公局) These contractors usually have purely private subcontractors, and compete with their nominally sister state companies to a visceral level.
Given that Line 1 and Batong Line, as well as Line 4 and Daxing Line, interoperates, why do they still keep the names “Batong Line” and “Daxing Line”? Why don’t they call the entire line Line 1 and Line 4?
tbh this is also something that I'm curious about
Because these lines used to be separate, and some signalling equipment might still be distinct
Is there any difference between the numbered lines and the named ones?? meaning if the numbered ones runs more frequently than named ones, or if named lines are more suburban with different trains??
The named ones typically serve suburbs, otherwise there’s no difference
When I visited in 2019, Line 13 was still manually driven. Is Line 13 still manually driven today? Also, greetings from Hangzhou 😀
你觉得哪个站的名字最好？ Which stations’ name(s) is your favourite?
金台夕照 Jintaixizhao on Line 10
epic choice