Beijing Subway

The Beijing Subway (simplified Chinese: 北京地铁; traditional Chinese: 北京地鐵; pinyin: Běijīng Dìtiě) is a rapid transit system that serves downtown Beijing and its various outlying suburbs and a daily ridership of about 2.6 million. It currently operates 5 lines with a total of 142 km of tracks and 93 stations. [1] It is still considered a minimal system given the population density of Beijing, though the system is being expanded for the 2008 Olympic Games and tentatively planned to expand to more than 561 km of subway tracks by 2015.

History

Beijing's subway system was the first such system nationwide. Construction works began on July 1, 1965, as part of the military defense systems after the Sino-Soviet split. Three major cities - Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang were proposed to build subway systems in the 1960s, but only the Beijing Subway was built. It connects Xishan (西山) and the downtown area, and was capable of transporting 5 to 6 divisions from Xishan to Beijing per day in case of Soviet invasion.

The first line of Beijing Subway connects Beijing railway station to Pingguoyuan (苹果园). It was first operated on October 1, 1969. The line corresponds to the western section of Line 1 and the southern section of Line 2 today. Initially, however, this line was only for official use. The system opened to the general public in 1977, and in 1980 to foreign visitors.

On September 20, 1984 the rest of Line 2 opened, and the Beijing Subway henceforth operated as two lines. On December 12, 1992, Line 1 was extended eastwards from Fuxingmen (复兴门) to Xidan (西单). On September 28, 1999 Line 1 was further extended from Xidan to Sihuidong (四惠东). The entire passageway was opened on June 24, 2000, thus allowing trains to go directly from Pingguoyuan to Sihuidong. There are still two stations near Xishan (#101 and #102) kept as military reserve stations and not open to public.

Line 13 was opened in two sections, the western section to Huoying (霍营) on September 28, 2002, and the eastern section on January 28, 2003. In the meantime, the Batong Line, built as an extension to Line 1, was opened as a separate line on December 27, 2003.

Line 5 is currently the newest line which came into operation on October 7, 2007. It is also the first north south line of Beijing and covers a length of 27.6 km and 23 stations.

The Beijing Subway currently has 5 lines: Line 1, Line 2, Line 5, Line 13 and Batong Line. As part of the preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing has pledged to expand its public transportation network. Beijing projects expansion of its subway network from the current 142 km to 561 km by 2015 (around 200 km by 2008).

Beijing plans to invest 63.8 billion yuan (7.69 billion US dollars) in future projects between 2002 and 2008. The Beijing Subway is now a market-oriented operation and is jointly funded by government and investors. The remainder will be covered by low interest bank loans, mostly provided by the Big Four banks in China.