Getting around
Soft sleeper from Xian to Beijing
I tried to buy a hard sleeper train ticket leaving the same day from Xian to Beijing, but the ticket office where I went had sold out. I decided to take a soft sleeper (rang-wo), even though it was a little more expensive - 405RMB to be exact, for an upper berth. I […]
China tests Beijing - Tianjin bullet train
I recently wrote about the possibility of staying in Tianjin for the Beijing Olympics.
The plan is to have the service up and running by early August.
“A train prototype rolled off the production line in December and has completed a test run,” said Shao Liping, director of the railway authority in Nanning, capital of the southern […]
Record number of passengers on Beijing’s subway
Last Friday a record of 3.51 million passengers on the Beijing’s subway system was set. The newly opened line 5 transported 557,000 passengers.
New York in comparison had an average weekday ridership was 5,076,000 in 2006. Tokyo has an average of 5.69 million passengers per day.
Source
24 by 7 public transport for the Olympics
Deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission, Liu Xiaoming said they will be offering increased routes and operating hours for the Beijing Olympics.
“A round-the-clock public transportation system during the Beijing Olympic Games will be ensured,” he added, as 40 percent of Beijing’s 66,000 taxis would operate 24 hours and rail transport could be extended […]
Beijing subways getting automated ticketing
Subways in Beijing still use paper tickets and IC cards with attendants checking the paper tickets. Automated ticket checkers are currently being installed at stations. Long lines to purchase tickets are frequent and moves to make the system more automated should help problems with congestion.
Get around Beijing in one of these
Having trouble getting a taxi? Looking for something different for getting around Beijing? Try one of these three-wheeled bikes, called a modi in Chinese. Interestingly the guy has a big “luck” or “fortune” Chinese character on the back of his trike, something you will probably need riding in one of these on […]
Beijing reduces subway fares
Today Beijing’s subway authorities reduced its subway fares to 2 RMB from 3 RMB, for any a one way journey regardless of the distance or the number of transfers taken.
The government is hoping that the fare reduction will help reduce traffic on the roads and pollution in the city. The subway is already […]