Photo courtesy of Beijingology

This news was first reported to the Anglophone world on Twitter by our fearless correspondent David Feng:

News on the opening is also on China Daily, and Sohu (zh). According to David on Beijing A to B, the fare will be RMB25. According to David on Beijingology:

The line will have only four stops along the entire line. There will be two stops in central Beijing — Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao — with the two remaining stops at Beijing Capital International Airport. The Airport Express reaches Terminal 3 before reaching Terminal 2; passengers for Terminal 1 need to use the transfer passageway at Terminal 2.

Service intervals are expected to be 5 minutes at the start, with the entire trip taking around 18 minutes (Terminal 3) or 25 minutes (Terminal 2).

The new subway line will be a driverless system.

The Airport Express will feed into the overall Beijing Subway system at Dongzhimen (interchange with Subway Line 2 and 13) and Sanyuanqiao (interchange with Subway Line 10). The Line 10 interchange is especially exciting because it provides one-transfer access to Beijing’s CBD and to Beijing’s Haidian high-tech district. For a high-tech entrepreneur traveling to Beijing, this is transit nirvana!

Here’s a video of an earlier test run I found on YouTube:

More on this live from David Feng once he recovers from staying up all night waiting for the Beijing Apple Store Sanlitun to open up!

Tangsos Chan is the blogger behind China Web 2.0 Review (in English), VP of VP of China Growth Capital. CN Reviews coverage of Tangos can be found here and here.

Apple4.us (h/t Flypig on twitter) has some great photos from the event:

More photos at Apple4.us.

Also on Twitter, Stephen Schwankert aka @chinabuzz (who’s day job is China Correspondent for IDG News Service) remarked on Twitter that “our new best friend: John Ford, Sanlitun Apple Store manager“.

UPDATE: Stephen (aka @chinabuzz) posted more details at PCWorld:

This is the first of many stores we will open in China,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, in remarks at the store. He later added that Apple will open stores “in Beijing, in Shanghai and beyond,” and confirmed that another store will open in Beijing’s Qianmen area, a shopping street south of Tiananmen Square that has been renovated ahead of the Olympic Games, which begin next month.

UPDATE: More great photos from Apple4.us on a new post:

Thanks again to Amy Barney of Apple Computer for the invite.

The store will opening on July 19, 2008 at 10:00 (reported by David Feng at TechBlog86).

invite courtesy of TechBlog86.

• A 网志创建和谐社会 - Blogs Creat Harmonious Society
• B 多志兴邦 - More Blogs (Wills), More Flourishing the Country
• C 和谐网志 - Harmonious Blogs
• D 和而不同- Harmonious but Diverse
• E 和而不同，多志兴邦- Harmonious but Diverse, More Blogs (Wills), More Flourishing the Country
• F 网志的个性与社会性 - The Personality and Sociality of Blogs
• G Other- ____________________

You can go here and pick or suggest the theme you like together with your blog URL. I (not stand for CN Reviews) picked B. I think Chinese blogosphere want more diverse voices, but they are not necessary to be harmonious.

What’s your choice of the theme?

I sometimes step back and look at this depressing fiasco as a whole, and wonder if we’re not all utter idiots, clutching to the vain hope that our criticisms, insults, explanations, persuasions, or emphatic exhortations will somehow change someone’s mind for what we consider to be the more balanced and the better. It is demoralizing, to say the least, to realize that, yes…we’re all utter idiots.

Take, for instance, the politicization of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How incredibly aggravating it is to see the Chinese and the Chinese government demand that the rest of the world not politicize their cherished coming-out party, only to see that they themselves have politicized it to the hilt. It may be wholly understandable that they want that control. Yet, it is that precise double-standard coupled with bumbling–or just poorly translated–rhetoric that consistently overshadows the sheer cultural ignorance and insensitivity we see from holier-than-thou activists for whatever movement du jour that has a gripe with China, its government, or all 1.3 billion of its people.

Those on the polarized ends will never see eye-to-eye, nor do they care to. The battle has always been and will always be for those in the middle. I’d like to think I’m in the middle but unlike those on the ends, I think that’s exactly where I and the majority of people should remain. Yes, straddling the fence involves the fence being uncomfortably entrenched up my nether regions but I’ll deal. Why? Because the truth is–according to me, of course–that both sides are right and both sides are wrong. This has been the case and will unfortunately always be the case, and I’d very much prefer to associate myself with the “right” on both sides.

Perhaps,then, the reason I continue to be drawn into these debates is my idealistic–but childish–faith in the marketplace of ideas. I mean, if I know something and I don’t share it, who knows how many countless souls will be swayed into the abyss of ignorance, bias, prejudice, and greater idiocy? Ah, yes, how narcissistic of me but isn’t cherishing dissent in the presence of consent precisely the difference between Western ideals of democracy, freedom, and human rights, and the authoritarian “social harmony” of China?

But in addition to the wonderful ideal of passionate but reasoned discourse leading us all to enlightened decision-making and declared positions is the very practical notion of being practical. Trying to convince your mortal enemy that he or she is an idiot is like China trying to convince the Dalai Lama that he’s the incarnation of evil; it is a waste of time and there could be more productive things to be done like racking up notches or, In China’s case, making sure your truths, lies, and spins are believed by the only people that really matter, your domestic population.

With all of that in mind, I offer you this excerpt of a July 14th article from the New York Times, whom many Chinese largely regard as a biased, Western, anti-China publication simply because it dares to print anything critical of China:

The call he will never forget came for Peter Ueberroth in the middle of the night on May 12, 1984, over a crackling phone line from Beijing. It carried the news he believed would determine the fate of the Olympics, not just the Games he was working to organize in Los Angeles that summer but all the ones beyond.

At the other end of the line was Charles Lee, the man he had sent to persuade the Chinese to send their team to the Olympics for the first time. Ueberroth, the leader of the Los Angeles organizing committee, was asking China to defy a Soviet Union-led boycott that was announced four days earlier. The Soviets said the boycott would keep 100 countries away from the ‘84 Games. If the Soviets succeeded, Ueberroth said flatly, “we were done.”

Salvation came when Lee called and told Ueberroth, “They’re coming.”

As the world prepares for the Beijing Games in August, that moment is all but lost in the history of the Olympics, when the winds shifted and carried the Games away from a political bludgeon in the cold war to the combination of athletic and commercial success they have become since.

Ueberroth, now 70 and the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee, will lead the American team into China with a deep sense of gratitude. He believes China saved the Olympics.

So maybe the United States and George W. Bush, the fantastic man that he is, attending the 2008 Beijing Games isn’t really about kowtowing to China. Maybe its about something else and hopefully something more…human.

I know China has, in many frustrating ways, sabotaged its own Games with their own immature insecurities. I know it is difficult to put up with the politics that inevitable surround the Olympics, especially when it involves a country, government, or citizenship that has difficulty dealing with the negative attention and criticism that always comes. The dialogue and debates should continue, ideally in the spirit of greater mutual understanding and mutual growth, but maybe we should pause for a moment to reflect upon an Olympics separate from all the nonsense. If the British and German soldiers of World War I could put down their guns to play a game of football for Christmas, can’t we put aside our agendas and share a moment of peace for the Olympics?

I mean, I hear they’ve got some breathtaking architecture in Beijing. It’d be a shame to miss it.

Why should we all build our homes and give residence to the trolls under them? Comments on blogs inevitably implode, and we all accept it under the belief that “open is better!” Open is not better….We’ve put the wisdom of the deranged on the same level as the wisdom of the wise.

She too has felt the harsh mob mentality, also known as “the wisdom of the crowds.” For the record, crowds are really frackin’ stupid and to put your stock in crowds is about as bright as putting your faith in a dictator-they’ll love you for as long as they feel like it, then they’ll ripe[sic] you apart without mercy.

For some reason, reading this reminded me of what Kaiser Kuo¹ at Ogilvy Digital Watch wrote about China’s Facebook-clone Xiaonei² and their new open platform policies. Reflecting upon the legion of developers angry that Xiaonei’s “open” policies actually ended up NOT being so open and thus negatively affecting their plans for making money through Xiaonei, Kuo wrote:

Tangos³ suggests that there really isn’t a culture of openness, but rather one of control, with Chinese Internet companies, and I agree that’s the case. In this case this tendency is reinfoced by something even more basic to Chinese culture, Internet company or whatever: ruthless pragmatism.

Of course, Calacanis and Kuo are talking about two very different things. Calacanis supports his decision to exit the blogosphere by citing the degradation of dialogue in the face of capricious crowds. Kuo (and Tangos) attributes Xiaonei’s tight-fisted policies to a basic tendency in Chinese culture to regard control controlling your options and controlling how others should coexist with you whenever possible as being pragmatic.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Calacanis’ rationalization has a certain technocratic air about it, which is ironically reminiscent of the Chinese central government. Like Calacanis, the CCP government too doesn’t put much stock in crowds, especially crowds with “frackin’ stupid” ideas that aren’t government approved. Like Calacanis, the CCP government fears the crowds, regarding them suspiciously being one step away from becoming an uncontrollable mob ready to end their rule disrupt “social harmony” and tear apart the country.

Therein lies the complex rationalizations for the necessity of the Chinese central government to control the Chinese people, whether it means increased patriotic education for splittist TIbetans, suppressing grieving parents who lost their children in the Sichuan earthquake, or employing grassroots public relations specialists to shape public opinion with propagandic posts and comments throughout the internet. The Chinese government doesn’t need to show Tibetan young men cutting out chunks of ass-meat or show how the Weng’an mass riot was ultimately a 30,000-strong mob mobilized by rumors and lies. All they need is a video of Cantonese teenagers raping and beating up a single, naked girl and the ensuing public commotion to show that, yes, people are inherently evil, can’t be trusted, and will do really “frackin’ stupid” things when in groups, much less crowds and mobs. So, society needs government to control and control, itself, is a pragmatic necessity for the welfare and continued development of the Chinese nation.

China, like Calacanis, isn’t too keen on letting dissidents and westerners “trolls and haters” take over the discussion. After all, the last time it happened, China became a whore to Western imperialist powers. As a social, poltiical, and economic entity, a CCP-governed China will only be as open as it chooses to be. Just as Xiaonei not wanting to be OpenSocial, China doesn’t want to be a Western democracy. China’s unapologetic embrace of control, like Xiaonei, is about ruthless pragmatism, for good or for ill.

For most Chinese, society is ultimately inefficient, injustices happen, and there is no Holy God in the afterlife to give you your due. “Westerners,” ever confident and optimistic in their socio-political ideologies, often miss that. The concession that governmental control of society is necessary is certainly a defining characteristic of Chinese culture, a culture that has, for thousands of years, hoped for benevolent governance from enlightened individuals to guarantee the most basic right hope of being able to eat, sleep, and make babies in peace.

Of course, the other defining characteristic of Chinese culture is that it is always everyone else–and not oneself–that makes government control and other necessary evils, well, necessary.

Notes
¹ About the only other person in the world I know of that shares my name. Sucker.
² For those who don’t know, “Xiaonei” literally means “inside campus,” reminding us of Facebook originally being open only to university students, you know, before they made it big.
³ Now, “Tangos” is a cool name, far cooler than “Kaiser.” It has more “Spanish street brawler” and less “German world domination.”

Dear Department of Treasury, I beg for your mercy.

I now endeavor to help others not make this same mistake by providing some FAQs on the process of submitting the appropriately named FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) form.

But first, some background on how I lost faith in the U.S. dollar

Image courtesy of Freaking News

• On 3/20 I posted about the new CNY exchange traded notes announced by Morgan Stanley & Van Eck Global on 3/17, as a way of hedging RMB appreciation.
• By 3/30 this year, I concluded that RMB appreciation was inexorable and might even require a “one-off maxi-revaluation” to stem speculative inflows.
• On 4/2, I posted about the decline of the US dollar’s reserve currency status as another contributing factor toward USD/RMB exchange rate.
• On 4/11, I posted that I exchanged USD for RMB at the rate of 6.9835 into my China Merchants Bank account, and that I had established an Everbank RMB account (in the US) at 6.9544. On 4/10 the central parity rate was set at 6.992.
• On 7/11, Xinhua announced that the central parity rate of the RMB was set at 6.8397 (see China Foreign Exchange Trading System website Chinamoney.com.cn (zh) for more info). So the RMB has appreciated by 2.2% in 3 months, or a 9.2% annualized appreciation rate. So clearly, putting all my spare cash in RMB (even in the 0% interest Everbank WorldCurrency Access Deposit account) is a no brainer.

USD-RMB exchange rate chart, 2008. See a pattern?

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Now back to the FBAR. I choose to pronounce this “fubar” which has another meaning in English.

Q: Who needs to file the FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts)? I mean, I really don’t have a lot of money abroad.

A: If you have a foreign account, and the value of that account exceeds $10,000, you need to file a FBAR. More at IRS.gov here.

Q: Is this part of my Federal Tax Return? Can I get an extension?

A: No and no, that would be too easy and too obvious. According to the IRS:

The FBAR is not to be filed with the filer’s Federal income tax return. The granting, by IRS, of an extension to file Federal income tax returns does not extend the due date for filing an FBAR. There is no extension available for filing the FBAR. Account holders who do not comply with the FBAR reporting requirements may be subject to civil penalties, criminal penalties, or both.

Q: Umm, how was I supposed to know about this?

A: Well did you monitor the press releases on the IRS website? The IRS published a press release IR-2008-79 on June 17 specifically to remind taxpayers to report certain foreign bank and financial accounts by June 30. An interesting fact from the press release:

Since 2000, the number of Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) forms received by the Treasury has increased by nearly 85 percent, from 174,528 in 2000 to 322,414 in 2007. Despite this significant increase in filings, concern remains about the degree of reporting compliance for those who are required to file.

Only 322,414 were received in 2007, and I’m sure that there isn’t 100% compliance with this requirement. But even then, it seems like a very small number of U.S. persons actually have a foreign account.

Q: What’s the deadline again?

A: June 30, 2008 for the 2007 calendar year. Yes, if you haven’t done this already, you are delinquent.

Q: OK, what form do I use?

A: Form TD F 90-22.1 (pdf) located on the IRS website. If you only have 1 account, its less than 1 page long.

Q: Where do I send it?

A: Don’t send it to where you send your normal tax returns. According to the IRS, you should send it here:

U.S. Department of the Treasury
P.O. Box 32621
Detroit, MI 48232-0621

Q: No offense, but I don’t trust anything in the blogosphere these days! Where can I get the official information?

A: Yes, in general, don’t trust bloggers for legal, tax and compliance information unless they happen to be licensed professionals in the right field. So go get the real deal here:

• IRS FAQ on Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)
• IRS copy of Form TD F 90-22.1 (pdf)
• email the IRS: FBARquestions@irs.gov
• call the IRS at (800) 829-3676

Q: Why do I have to do this?

A: This seems to be under the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency of the US Department of Treasury. It seems partially motivated by tax compliance and partially motivated by addressing money laundering for drug trafficing and terrorist activity.

In real life, we talk fake stuff with our real names. On the Internet, we talk real stuff with our fake names.

Although yours truly is an advocate of the Real-Name Blogging system (he uses real names on all of his blogs, as well as on other blogs including CN Reviews), he realizes that maybe not everyone wants to use their real names. Even for things as “non-polit” as the time-and-again-delayed opening of Beijing’s new Subway lines, there’s that bit of laoli laodao (唠呖唠叨), or yak yak yak, that is best kept anonymous (one of the recent comments, “the authorities fooled us again!”, is better kept anonymous — China Internet veterans would know why).

This is the funny bit about the Chinese Internet. On forums as diverse in topics as Mac and mass transit, the funniest or most thought-provoking posts are often started by The Mao Zedong Trainset or the Super Rascal Rabbit — yes, people with names that will never make it to the average Chinese ID card. Freeway forums ban people with names named after (pardon the pun) freeway cloverleaves. The heaviest criticisms of The Powers That Be are almost never signed with a true name — the thing coming to the “truest name” is probably a virtual John Hancock by “John Doe”.

Let’s remind ourselves of the fact that the Games are near — and that everyone’s getting on edge. As a result, if the Web gets jittery our side… we’d know why. Getting on edge with a fake name is probably safer than getting on edge with a real name.

Yet this very phenomenon is interesting in its own right. We’re beginning to see uncensored content in Chinese about things that appear closer to “the truth”. The funny thing is, they’re true — but the names of those who wrote the stuff are fake.

On the other hand, the moment a CCTV (or evening Beijing TV) microphone is spotted, many a citizen switch into “satisfy-those-above-us-who-are-watching-us” mode and say the kind of stuff that they know the guys “up there” — well, “want to hear”. Bad commentary is nearly always dumped — at least never shown on the mundane silver screen.

Want to know why this is happening? Go back to the quote at the start of this post.

Interesting.

Bloggers and metrics: I’ll show my stats if you show me yours.

Some of my most fun meetups in China were with passionate bloggers lik38e Aw Guo Qirui (Awflasher (zh), Ifgogo) and Paul Denlinger (China Vortex). Some of those meetings I would characterize as “I’ll show you mine (stats) if you show me yours.” LOL. Apologize in advance for the self-referential 自恋 (narcissism…or is it 自我自恋?) inherent in this post.
Aw and Lisa were nice enough to pick me up at the Beijing Airport. But first thing Aw did when I got to my hotel was crack open his laptop to compare blog stats! Funny. But this turned out to be a blogger bonding moment. When Aw Guo talked about his focus on RSS subscribers as the ultimate stat I felt I had found a kindred soul. With another Ifgogo blogger Lisa Lee, we then talked about readers, traffic, Google, metrics, GFW, the new generation in China, blood types, Myers-Briggs, fortune telling. Here he is in my overpriced room at the Beijing JWMarriott:

Then the next day I had the same conversation about blog stats with Paul Denlinger! Here’s Paul and I going at it at the executive lounge at the JWMarriott:

Photo courtesy of ChristineLu.com

I later met with Paul and he said: “You really like numbers, don’t you? I can tell from your posts.” He called it. So here I am feeding my metrics obsession with another mega-post. How do you measure success with your blog?

First half of 2008 in review

With the close of the second quarter ended June 30, 2008, I thought I’d take the opportunity to look back at the first half of the year and measure some of our progress with CN Reviews. In summary, I’ve been pleased by our progress, but also feel like we need to restructure our blog and our focus to get better success in the future.

One of my favorite posts of all time on blog metrics is from Avinash Kaushik of Occam’s Razor. He met with us in Palo Alto and gave us some great blogging tips (like focus on RSS subscribers). I have followed his six recommendations closely to evaluate our own progress on CN Reviews.

Framework: Six Recommendations for Measuring Blog Success from Avinash Kaushik.

Here’s what Avinash recommends based on your “blog persona”:

CN Reviews is a “business blog” in Avinash’s framework. Below, I have followed his suggestions #1 through #4 and added a #5 which I call “Search Engine Optimization”.

Summary of my self-assessment of CN Reviews

• Raw Author Contribution - We have done a great job since our start on Dec 25, 2007, with 153 posts or 24 posts per month. The team, with David Feng being the #1 poster, has maintained a steady stream of posts for our readers. However, our posts are too long (including this one) and our writing is not accessible enough for non-native English speakers. Post length of 998 words/post needs to go down!
• Audience Growth - We are pleased with our audience growth, with June traffic of 12k visits and May traffic of 31k visits. We created a duplicate content situation which caused Google to start suppressing us in late May and June so we are recovering from that. Because we are a niche blog, we are also focused on quality of audience rather than quantity. So I don’t care so much about overall traffic. However, I do care about RSS subscribers and we have failed to build RSS subscribers at the rate we would like. So we need to focus our coverage and theme the blog more strongly to encourage more people.
• Conversion Rate - I’m pleased with the participation from the blog, with 2.5 comments/trackbacks per post on average.
• Citations/Ripple Index - Right now, our Technorati Rank is 51,951, and our Technorati Authority is 164. Our TA was 2 in January 2008.
• Search Engine Optimization - We are doing a good job with Search Engine Optimization. Google Page Rank = 4. Google Pages Indexed = 286. Yahoo Link Domain 2 = 16,878

And now on to the details…

#1 - Raw Author Contribution

Raw Author Contribution =

(A) Number of Posts / Number of Months Blogging
(B) Number of Words in Post / Number of Posts

I installed the General Stats plugin to measure these stats (on 7/4/2008):

CNReviews Raw Author Contribution is:

(A) 153 posts / 6.33 months (since 12/25/07) = 24
(B) 152,840 words in post / 153 Posts = 998

On average, 24 posts per month and 998 words per post. The frequency has been great, but long posts are not good for non-native speakers of English.

#2 - Holistic Audience Growth

Following Avinash’s methodology, we looked at our first measure of audience growth: Onsite Audience growth.

In June we had 12,082 visits, vs. 31,131 visits in May.

Our May traffic included a large spike due to the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, and then a drop in June due to a duplicate content problem on our site that caused us to be suppressed in Google and seriously damaged our Google traffic.

Here are some comments the Google suppression that we saw:

• May - We had a huge spike of traffic immediately after the China earthquake. May 16, was our peak day, with 4,641 unique visitors that day. But by 5/30, we noticed that we seemed to be suppressed in Google (for example, we couldn’t rank even on keyword query matching our post titles) and we were down to 497 unique visitors on 5/30.

• June - By 6/12, Min found the reason why. Thanks to a bad WordPress plugin, WordPress Contact Form 7, we had duplicate content for almost all of our pages. We found 495 pages in Google with this query: site:cnreviews.com “?wpcf7″. But our total indexed pages in Google was less than 900. We ended the month with 10,394 absolute unique visitors and 12,082 visits.

The second measure of audience growth is our “Offsite” Audience Growth or Feedburner and Feedsky (since Feedburner is blocked in China) subscribers.

We currently have 93 subscribers via Feedburner:

We also have on average 24.4 subscribers via Feedsky:

#3 - Conversion Rate

As Avinash says, blogs are a conversation. And comments are a reflection of how many people want to get into the conversation.

Conversion Rate =

Number of Visitor Comments / Number of Posts

To date, we have 546 total comments and trackbacks. However, many of those comments and trackbacks are our own:

• Self-trackbacks = 11% , or 61

• Self-comments = 19% , or 102

• So visitor comments and trackbacks = 70% of total reported comments, or 382

So our conversion rate is 382 / 153 = 2.5 comments/post

#4 Citations / Ripple Index

How broad is your impact across the blogosphere? Avinash recommends measuring “citations,” or how much people refer to your blog.

Citations / Ripple Index =

(A) Technorati Rank
(B) Technorati Authority

Right now, our Technorati Rank is 51,951, and our Technorati Authority is 164.

#5 Search Engine Optimization

From 1/1/2008 - 6/30/2008, we received 66% of our traffic from Search Engines.

Search Engine friendliness is a key factor for getting high quality blog traffic. We look at the following measures.

Search Engine Optimization =

(A) Google Page Rank
(B) Google Pages Indexed
(C) Yahoo! Link Domain (LD2)

Using a Firefox greasemonkey tool called SEOQuake, we can capture the following measures:

• Google Page Rank = 4

• Google Pages Indexed = 286

• Yahoo Link Domain 2 = 16,878

In summary, I’m pleased with the first six months of CN Reviews. Its a great start. But I would characterize it as a group of passionate people that have written on a number of interesting topics. But this group of people have not yet brought it together into a consistent, easy to understand concept that can get lots of RSS subscribers. That is what I’ll be working on with the CN Reviews blogging team to develop over the next few months. Stay tuned!

Welcome to our capital — Beijing: a confusingly huge capital. 5 ring roads. 16 freeways (with just a few more under planning). 4 major train hubs. This is not your average Chinese village. This is it. Shanghai, be very afraid of your northern rival.

And add to this — 8 Subway lines by the time the Games are here. The latest bit of news comes as three new lines — Lines 8, Line 10 and the Airport Express — are slated to open in mid-July 2008, just weeks before the Olympics.

And, taxis are expensive. So where does that leave us today? A trajectory underground into the Beijing Subway. As the station announcements so proclaim: The next station is Beijing Subway. Please get ready for your arrival.

Click the image for a bigger map (Beijing Subway Network)

A Little History Behind the Underground World in the Nation’s Capital

The Beijing Subway wasn’t there when the PRC was created in 1949. When Londoners first went underground in 1863, Beijing was still Emperor City, and people in “The Jing” (as it’s otherwise known) were still more interested in building things such as the Summer Palace and Yuanmingyuan — things that stood above ground, not hidden somewhere in the underground. Even when Mao came to power, the Subway was in “no-rush, no-hurry” mode; people thought of getting from A to B in buses or in corporate cars (which were a rarity back in the day). Going underground was virtually unheard-of.

Then, in the 1960s, something awful started to happen to China’s ties with the former Soviet Union. With tension between Beijing and Moscow nosediving with every passing day, Mao and Co thought of digging things underground so that the Soviets wouldn’t wipe out the capital in one fell swoop. The city went underground 1965, with Line 1 and part of Line 2 built — a quick, one-liner service linking the city’s railway station with the western suburbs.

At first, Line 1 went bit by bit to Gongzhufen (where the western 3rd Ring Road is right now) further west, before the whole line went straight west into Pingguoyuan, which to many a visiting foreigner is a never-heard-of place in far far away western Beijing. By 1969, the deep deed was done: Beijing’s first Subway line became reality.

When Deng replaced Mao, Subway fever continued with the reforms. A second line, the loop line, became reality, running underneath the Inner City Walls just inside of the 2nd Ring Road. By 1992, the Subway even went commercial, linking Xidan, a major shopping area in western central Beijing with the rest of the network.

When the People’s Republic turned 50, the entire Chang’an Avenue got Subway service from the western terminus to Sihui East, the point where the avenue turned into a city expressway headed for the eastern suburbs in Tongzhou. Tian’anmen and Wangfujing got Subway service, too. Things were looking good.

Beijing’s successful Olympic bid added Lines 5, 8, 10, 13, as well as the Airport Express and the Batong Line, into the whole mix. Pre-Games, Beijing now has just under 200 km of the underground world to offer to the incoming visitor.

The Subway Lines, Blow By Blow

Want a real detailed look at each line? We figured that this might be the bit you enjoy the most — a Subway line with a pic per line. Just to make sure you’re on the right line to the right place…

Line 1: The West-East Express (Color: Red)

Beijing’s very first Subway line, indeed, Line 1 is a straight, almost-no-curves link from western suburban Beijing right into the city center. It zips right along Chang’an Avenue from the western suburbs in Pingguoyuan through Gucheng, all in relatively industrialized Shijingshan District, and then rushes east, bypassing the Military Museum, all the way to Xidan, before zipping through Tian’anmen Square. Post-Square, the line heads further east to Wangfujing before diving nose first into the CBD and the eastern suburbs.

Batong Line: Extending East into the Suburbs (Color: Red)

The Batong Line, despite it being colored red (like its bro, Line 1), is probably of less importance to the incoming visitor than Line 1. Unless you’re after a bit of the new suburban Beijing, you might find yourself away from this line to the extent that it remains a subterranean (OK, actually above-ground) mystery.

Stations of interest to the incoming visitor: Sihui and SIhui East (to head back city-wards after a long day out east), Baliqiao (the Baliqiao old bridge), and Tongzhou Beiyuan (for a look at the eastern suburbs — a bit of real modernized Beijing).

Line 2: Running Circles Around the City (Color: Blue)

Line 2 is probably one of those lines you’ll have a hard time keeping away from. The Subway Gods hear you. Fully aware that you, O Picky Incoming Visitor (as seen in the eyes of many a local — the way we hear it in the capital), don’t like travelling with clackety old trains with service gaps the length of the Great Wall, end-to-end, Beijing Subway now has all-new rolling stock on the rails (indeed, about 90% of the whole line now has new trains), and has shortened Them Gaps down to 2 minutes 30 secs during rush hour. Getting you from A to B faster — and in more comfy style.

Line 5: North To South, Mozart Included (Color: Purple)

An October 2007 addition, the Mozart Line as we know it (so called because for the first few months, Mozart — and only Mozart — was played in the whole system) does the whole thing north-south, creating a real Subway network (lines hitherto were either all-circles or all west-east).

Stations of interest to the incoming visitor: Datunlu East (this is where your Olympic shuttle bus might take you), and Tiantandongmen (for the Temple of Heaven).

Line 8: The Olympic Express (Color: Green)
Coming mid-July 2008…

Line 8, also known as the Olympic Branch Line, connects the rest of the capital with the Olympic Green. Phase 1 is 4 stations — rather short — but by around 2011 or 2012, the whole line will be built, extending further north and south into the city. Most of the venues in the Green are served by this Subway line.

Stations of interest to the incoming visitor: Beitucheng (transfer to Line 10 and the rest of the system), and all stops in the Olympic Green (Olympic Sports Center, Olympic Green, and South Gate of Forest Park).

Line 10: The Zhongguancun-CBD Express (Color: Aqua)

Coming mid-July 2008…

Relief to the guys up north in Zhongguancun or east in the CBD, Line 10 finally links the two together in a semicircle. The arc line is mainly a massive connector with just about every line of Beijing’s 8-line Subway system except for Line 2 and the Batong Line. You’ll be on this one quite a bit, too.

Line 13: For Those Up North (Color: Yellow)

This line, which opened up in two phases — one in late 2002 and the other in early 2003 — is, like its Batong counterpart, of less use to incoming guests. However, Line 13 runs dangerously close to Wudaokou and Wangjing, where there are probably more Koreans than Chinese (as the whole thing might so appear). If you hail from Seoul and places beyond, this line is for you.

Airport Express: City To Airport In A Quarter Hour (Color: Light Purple)

Coming mid-July 2008…

The Airport Express is probably only of interest if you’re headed to, or have arrived from, of course, Beijing’s airport. This is also the only line which is not in Beijing’s CNY 2-anywhere Subway fare network; a ride on this baby saps away CNY 25, over twelve times the standard fare. (Just you try fare evasion on this thingamajig: fines go up to CNY 250. Owch.)

Quick Guide to Super-Famous Spots Near Major Subway Stations

Line 1:

• Tian’anmen (天安门) and Forbidden City (紫禁城): Tian’anmen East station (地铁天安门东站)
• Wangfujing (王府井): Wangfujing station (地铁王府井站)
• National Center for the Performing Arts (国家大剧院): Tian’anmen West station (地铁天安门西站)
• Xidan shopping area (西单): Xidan station (地铁西单站)
• Headquarters of Apple Beijing (苹果中国北京办事处): Yonganli station (地铁永安里站)
• China World Trade Center (中国国际贸易中心): Guomao station (地铁国贸站)
• CBD stops: Yong’anli, Guomao and Dawanglu stations (地铁永安里、国贸、大望路站)
• Beijing West Railway Station (北京西客站): Military Museum station (地铁军事博物馆站)
• Wukesong Indoor Stadium: Wukesong station (地铁五棵松站)
• Laoshan Velodrome: Bajiao Amusement Park station (地铁八角游乐园站)

Line 2:

• Beijing Zoo (北京动物园): Xizhimen station (地铁西直门站)
• Deshengmen Arrow Tower (remains of Ming and Qing City Walls) (德胜门箭楼): Jishuitan station (地铁积水潭站)
• Bell and Drum Towers (钟鼓楼): Guloudajie station (地铁鼓楼大街站)
• Yonghe Lamasery (雍和宫), Guozijian Street (国子监街), and Beijing Confucius Temple (北京孔庙): Yonghegong Lama Temple station (地铁雍和宫站)
• Workers’ Stadium (工人体育场) and Gymnasium (工人体育馆): Dongsi Shitiao station (地铁东四十条站)
• Chaowai area (朝外): Chaoyangmen station (地铁朝阳门站)
• Beijing Ancient Observatory (北京古观象台): Jianguomen station (地铁建国门站)
• Beijing City Wall relics (Ming and Qing Walls) (清明城墙遗址公园): Chongwenmen station (地铁崇文门站)
• Tian’anmen Square, Qianmen Avenue (前门大街) and Zhengyangmen Gate (正阳门): Qianmen station (地铁前门站)
• Finance Street (金融街): Fuchengmen station (地铁阜成门站)

Line 5:

• Olympic Green (奥林匹克公园): Datunlu East station (地铁大屯路东站)
• Temple of Heaven (天坛): Tiantandongmen station (地铁天坛东门站)

Line 8:

• Bird’s Nest and Water Cube (鸟巢、水立方): Olympic Sports Center station (地铁奥体中心站)
• National Stadium (国家体育馆): Olympic Green station (地铁奥林匹克公园站)
• Forest Park (森林公园): South Gate of Forest Park station (地铁森林公园南门站)

Line 10:

• Zhongguancun (中关村) and Zhongguancun West (中关村西区): Suzhoujie and Haidian Huangzhuang stations (地铁苏州街、海淀黄庄站)
• Yuan Dynasty City Wall Relics Park (元大都城墙遗址公园): Xitucheng station (地铁西土城站)
• Women’s Street (Nurenjie) (女人街): Liangmaqiao station (地铁亮马桥站)
• CBD stops: Hujialou, Jintaixizhao and Guomao stations (地铁呼家楼、金台夕照、国贸站)
• CCTV Tower (The Pants): Jintaixizhao station (地铁金台夕照站)

Line 13:

• Great Bell Temple (大钟寺): Dazhongsi station (地铁大钟寺站)
• Wangjing community (Koreatown in Beijing): Wangjing West station (地铁望京西站)

Batong Line:

• Baliqiao Bridge (old bridge) (八里桥): Baliqiao station (地铁八里桥站)
• Tongzhou (new suburban center) (通州城区): Tongzhou Beiyuan station (地铁通州北苑站)

Airport Express:
• Beijing Airport (PEK, 北京首都国际机场): T2 or T3 stations