I thought Beijing would look like this...

So the hard sleeper train ride on my way here was just fine…

Beijing’s Accent, Pollution, and Subway Welcomes Me

At a farmer-friendly 7:00am, the announcer declared day and soon the flat-screen television in our cabin turned on and video entertainment programming began, none of which I paid any attention to as I hoped to catch a few more winks before arriving in Beijing. It wasn’t until later that I realized there were two switches in each cabin that could turn the lights and speaker (which, again, was right by my head in the top bunk) off and on.

Argh.

We pulled into Beijing…without me really knowing it was Beijing. Other than the time telling me we should be arriving, I couldn’t see shit out the window. Visibility was awful, as fog obscured the Beijing cityscape leading up to the Beijing Railway Station. Coming from Shanghai, I had the expectation that Beijing, like other Chinese mega-metropolises, would greet me with plenty of high-rises. Where were they? Or was the fog simply hiding them all away from me? Frankly, I thought I was still in the countryside.

...but it looked more like this, except with 2x more smog and 2x less visibility. What's that? That's Tiananmen Square in the distance? You sure its not a field of crops or something?

So this is Beijing, eh?

The temperature for Beijing during my brief stay was forecasted to range from an ass-freezing 6 degrees down to a nut-shriveling -3 degrees Celsius. Oh sure, this is nothing compared to many places in the world, usually places where vodka or baijiu is the normal source of hydration, but I’m someone who thinks Southern California winters are damn cold. Being on the top bunk, I reasoned I had to let everyone get off the train first before I could hop down and reattach my winter body-armor. A conductor, in his quaint Beijing accent was already telling people to get ready to disembark before the train had even stopped, so imagine his bemused impatience when he came around finding me alone in the train car hurriedly bundling myself up: “哥们儿，你怎么儿还没儿下儿车儿啊儿儿儿？” (Bro, how come you haven’t gotten off yet?). There were probably a lot more retroflex “Rs” than that, but wow, a real Beijing accent!

How cute!

As veritably the last passenger to get off the train, I made my way through the Beijing Railway Station and out to the Line 2 Metro Subway, which I opted to take instead of a taxi to meet up with Elliott. First thing I noticed as I walked out of the station was that, sure enough, Beijing has much fewer tall building density than Shanghai. Whereas towering structures with small footprints squeeze themselves into downtown Shanghai to block out the sky, Beijing greeted me with large tracts of low-rises and hutongs. Of course, to be an ass about it, one of the first things I would utter would be: “Hm, quaint place. Needs more skyscrapers and Shanghainese though.”

Not me, do you see any winter body armor on this guy?

But speaking of quaint, Beijing’s subway is flat-rate. That means going anywhere on the subway, no matter how close or how far, will only cost 2 RMB. While this is much more than what it used to be even just recently, compared to the 3-7 RMB fares in Shanghai, this is a freaking bargain.

I love Beijing!

Continuing comparing everything to Shanghai (hoping to annoy some Beijingers or so), the subway reminds me of a mix between the Shanghai Metro and the Hong Kong MTR. I suppose this isn’t unexpected, given that this is all “China”, but I do think Beijing’s subway hardware might be a bit better than Shanghai’s at this point. At first glance, the older Line 2 stations in Beijing are a bit more run-down compared to the World Expo renovated stations in Shanghai and the unpainted brushed aluminum subway cars simply look older (like Hong Kong or New York) than the glossy-white subway cars of Shanghai. But, Beijing has cheaper flat-rate fares, upholstered subway seating, native English speaking announcers (for the American English announcements), and horribly nifty advertising in the subway tunnels that (I’m trying to figure out how to explain this) “follow” the train as it moves. They’re essentially flashing LEDs that are coordinated with the train. It’s probably a clear sign that our daily lives are indeed being bombarded and intruded upon by advertising but it was hella nifty nonetheless…and not seen in Shanghai, which is obviously and indisputably the benchmark of mainland China cities, right?

Right, so Beijing, so far, doesn’t have as many tall buildings as Shanghai, has a better subway, and I can’t see shit because of the fog. That fog, of course, isn’t just low-hanging water vapor, but a nice low-hanging mixture of polluted water-vapor and carcinogenic particulates. You can tell, because it doesn’t smell like normal fog, and it’s worrisome when you can even “taste” it. That said, I was already familiar with Beijing’s reputation for air pollution, so it wasn’t too shocking. A day of this wouldn’t kill me. It was just a stark contrast to the stunningly beautiful blue-skies days we recently had in Shanghai.

And then Elliott said I “need” to get a cab because where we’d be staying is “a bit ghetto”…

Next: Nanluoguxiang, Sanlitun Village, Johnny Cash Hot Pot, and Spicy Scotch

It seemingly began in early 2007 as ExploreShanghai, an interactive Shanghai subway/metro map, developed by what appears to be a lone British web developer by the name of Matt Mayers. Recently in late 2008, however, ExploreShanhai was joined by ExploreBeijing and ExploreGuangzhou, completing ExploreMetro’s offerings to include all three of China’s “first-tier” cities.

Mayer’s maps provide a number of useful and convenient features:

1. Overall map of the subway systems in China’s major metropolises, including all lines in operation, stops and transfer stations, in both English and Chinese.
2. Times for the first and last trains departing from each station, so you’ll never use the subway too early or too late.
3. A route-planner allowing the user to drag from their departing station to their destination station, providing approximate travel time and fare cost. Be wowed by the cute animation sequence.
4. A “pedia” that provides additional detailed information for each station in the system, including: approximate travel times to other stations along the line, station diagrams sourced from Chinese-only 51metro.com (Shanghai only), integrated Google maps, and photos of the station’s surroundings.
5. Sexy female Chinese voice reading aloud each station’s name (at present, only Shanghai).

Mayer also provides at least one extremely amusing (but otherwise useless) feature, silly loading status messages:

• calculating ticket prices
• checking tickets
• cleaning up spit (zing!)
• digging new tunnels
• filling up Huangpu river (SH only)
• fluffing clouds
• installing interchanges
• opening metro stations
• polishing Olympic medals (BJ only)
• polishing station attendants’ badges
• refilling metro cards
• reticulating splines
• renaming stations
• starting down escalators
• starting up escalators
• sweeping platforms
• training drivers

Those are the ones I’ve managed to jot down upon countless page reloads, and I absolutely love the geeky SimCity references. Other bonus material include a cute anagrammed version of the Shanghai metro map.

While local Chinese will likely still prefer using their own home-grown Chinese-language websites, ExploreMetro should be a nice reference for China’s many expats and foreign visitors who opt not to waste time or money hopping into taxis to get wherever they want to go when the subway is equally accessible and often times much faster.

You can read more about the Explore metro maps at their blog, and if anyone knows of any other easter-egg or special inside jokes, please share them in the comments below.

Last week, we went into painstaking detail about where Line 10 will run through. This week, we’ll dip into other topics — including how stations are designed, the new ticket barriers, and what the future holds for Line 10.

Yes, that’s right, ladies and gents. Please get ready for your arrival.

The Décor

The typical Line 10 station as it appears on the outside. Shown here: Mudanyuan station.

Line 10 is a bit different — still. Inside each station, at platform level, it’s pretty much white (except for the Line 8 part of Beitucheng station, which is full of porcelain, as well as Jintaixizhao station, with its crazy flying saucers on a black background). Upon closer examination, however, every station looks a bit different. While most Line 10 station may be white at platform level (in terms of the livery), there are minute differences. The poles may be white at Mudanyuan station (in a residential area in northern urban Beijing), but they appear “forked” and in an irregular semi-circle-cum-square-ish shape at Liangmaqiao station (right next to the Yansha shopping city). The roof at Shaoyaoju station (near the University of International Business and Economics in the northeast), where you can change to Line 13, appear a bit curvy, yet the ones at Shuangjing (just south of the CBD) appear striped. Columns, too, are different: the ones at Zhichunli (near Zhongguancun and the Jade Palace Hotel) may be thick and square, but the ones near Shuangjing are thinner and more rectangular. It’s those tiny variations in those details that make Line 10 all the more interesting to ride on.

The craziest décor has got to at Shuangjing station. From the pictures your Beijingologist has observed on the Internet, the poles head straight up into this curved orange “bit” (so to speak), giving you this impression that someone stuck this great big pole into — omelet.

Hence the David Feng or Beijingologist nickname: the “hanging omelet line”.

Creative underground stuff.

Integrated into a nearby building: Hujialou station.

If there’s a wacky factor in Line 10, it’s most likely to do with just how the platforms are arranged. Line 10 has probably the craziest mix of side and central platforms, with one or two side platform stations mixed between a whole load of central island platform stations.

Let’s start out from the northwestern terminus, Bagou, which is not that far from Zhongguancun. Bagou uses a central platform, yet Suzhoujie station (the next stop going clockwise) uses side platforms, as does Haidian Huangzhuang. Zhichunli sees the return of the central platform, yet just one station further east, Zhichunlu, is where the side platforms return (and where you can change to Line 13 for destinations further north). Things get more regular further east (and along northern urban Beijing near the Olympic Green), with Xitucheng, Mudanyuan, Jiandemen and Beitucheng all using central platforms, yet when Line 10 mixes and matches with Line 5 at Huixinxijie Nankou, Line 10 has to do side platforms while Line 5 does central platforms. The situation is the other way around at Shaoyaoju station (where you get to change to Line 13 again close to the University of International Business and Economics), when Line 10 uses a central platform but Line 13 does side ones instead.

Moving further east — then south — Taiyanggong continues the central platform tradition, as do Sanyuanqiao (where you can hop on to the Airport Express), Liangmaqiao and the Agricultural Exhibition Center. But just head further south away from the hotels on the eastern 3rd Ring Road and head toward the CBD, and chaos returns, once again. Tuanjiehu (near the Sanlitun Bar Street) is in the form of two side platforms, and Hujialou appears to be a side platform biz, too. Further south, Jintaixizhao is a side platform matter, too.

Guomao is the oddball in all this. Line 10 has a tall order to go through at Guomao — it has to make do with poles from two overpasses (one decked on top of the other) and another Subway line (that’s Line 1). The Subway geniuses came up with this incredible idea of a split island platform, where the door opens on the left, but the whole station appears like it’s a side platform affair.

Finally, our beloved central platforms return further south, at Shuangjing and Jinsong stations, well south of the Beijing CBD.

Dip Twice: Introducing the New AFC System

Those of you travelling on Beijing’s Subway system will probably remember this: in late December (actually, on December 31, 2003), the Beijing Subway AFC (auto fare collection) system officially made that switch from fiction to fact. Back in those days, you had to dip your subway card twice over the ticket barriers — once upon getting in, and again upon getting out.

Then, in May 2006, The Powers That Be changed it for those travelling on Lines 1 and 2, as well as the Batong Line. You had to dip your card only once — upon entry. Meanwhile, Line 13, then a distance-based line, required two dips — once in and once out.

All of this dipping in, dipping out and dropping around the Subway system came to a unified stop on October 7, 2007, when a new, standardized fare of CNY 2 per ride — regardless of distance and with unlimited free transfers — became reality. Beginning on that date, you only had to dip in your card once. You’d pay the same fee for a 400 meter ride as you would for a 70 km ride.

Hold it here — it gets better. When the new AFC system is in operation (just before or around when Line 10 opens), you’ll need to dip in your card twice — once in, once out. However, the unified fare of CNY 2 per ride is still yours. It’s just that you’ll need to execute another nifty little hand gesture over the ticket barriers before you run into the hands of your waiting boyfriend/girlfriend/mom/dad/__fill in the blank__, who’s probably waiting for you at the station outside the ticket barriers.

Please get ready for your arrival. To continue, dip your card.

Zukunftsmusik: Forming Beijing’s Second Loop Line

Is Line 10 a bit short, going only from Bagou near Zhongguancun down south to Jinsong (just south of the CBD)? We think so, too. That’s why the Beijing Subway has decided to expand and build on Line 10, to ultimately make it the city’s second loop line.

Line 10 will leave Jinsong and continue along the eastern 3rd Ring Road in a clockwise manner, bypassing Panjiayuan (near the antique market) before reaching Fenzhongsi (the start of the Jingjintang Freeway) and turning west. It then continues through Songjiazhuang, which is where Line 5 ends (and the future Yizhuang Line to the Beijing Economic Tech Development Area begins) and continues further south (between the southern 3rd and 4th Ring Roads) until joins with Line 4 (which runs from the Summer Palace through the Beijing South Railway Station) at Jiaomen West. Line 10 next hits Sanhuan New City and Fengguan Road in southwestern Beijing before heading north, reaching Liuliqiao West (near the start of the Jingshi Freeway), Gongzhufen (where it links up with Line 1), and Wulu (where it links up with Line 6, Beijing’s mega west-east line in the planning, as well as the Datai Line, bringing people further west into the suburbs). Line 10 finally passes through Zizhuyuan, Yuanda Road and Huoqiying in northwestern Beijing before returning to Bagou (near Zhongguancun), where it finishes the loop.

When all is said and done — by 2012 — Line 10 will be 57.13 km in length, with 45 stops, 24 of which are interchanges.

Whew.

Line 10: In Standby Mode

So the big question is: when will the Hanging Omelet Line (with the “hanging omelet at Shuangjing station, this line now has an official Beijingologist moniker, too!) going to go live?

Let’s take a look at the line on the fast track. Every new Subway line needs at least three months of trial operations — without passengers. For that three months, the Subway company is being deliberately unproductive — but in the name of safety. Trial ops started February 28, 2008, so the absolute earliest we can expect for an opening would be on May 27, 2008.

Some time ago, they said that Line 8 (the Olympic Branch Line going into the Olympic Green) would open June 1, 2008. They also said that all three lines would open at the same time. So an optimistic opening would be on June 1, 2008.

But then, The Powers That Be changed their minds. Now we have reports of an opening coming “in mid-June 2008″. Two dates leap into view: June 15, 2008, or June 20, 2008 (the latter as suggested by a local Subway fan site — not run by your fellow Beijingologist).

In the absolute worst-case scenario, the line would have to open no later than June 30, 2008. It seems, then, that the month of June 2008 will be a sleepless one for your Beijingologist. Every night, he’ll probably be dreaming — nope, dying — for Line 10 to open. (He’ll more than need it!)

If Line 5 was any indication, though, it’s that the opening of the line will be pre-announced, modified, and then finally made official by means of “blue post-its” outside Subway stations, with the official date and time of the opening.

You can be sure that your Beijingologist won’t let slip the date of the official opening. It’s probably going to be Yet Another Big 2008 Story, a la Terminal 3.

Click the image for a bigger map.

Line 10, at first, looks to be this odd arc running from northwestern urban Beijing through to the CBD. It looks a bit half-done, to be honest; it’s either an amalgamation of two lines or half a loop. But don’t let that throw you off: Line 10, when it opens, will be absolutely crucial to the Chinese capital. You’ll find yourself taking the new line more often than you think.

Don’t believe me? Hop along for a quick test drive.

What Line 10 Means To Beijing

Line 10 doesn’t exactly travel through new territory at first glance. Subway services already serve the southeastern part of the Zhongguancun region, as well as Shaoyaoju (a residential quarter not far from the University of International Business and Economics), and there’s a subway line underneath Chang’an Avenue. At first, there’s not that much excitement.

But wait — Line 10′s there for a reason. To get from the CBD to Zhongguancun right now, it’s a ride on three lines. With Line 10, you’ll just need to hop in from Guomao station and stay on the train until Zhongguancun, exiting at Haidian Huangzhuang station for Zhongguancun Avenue — that “big street” through China’s Silicon Valley (as they call it).

Line 10 doesn’t just add new spots served by the subway (much of the eastern 3rd Ring Road, as well as northern urban Beijing), it actually does a great job of joining existing lines and adding in a host of shortcuts and transfer stations. No doubt about it: once you’re on Line 10, you’ll wonder how the heck you made it through x-million transfer stations before the new line.

Who’ll Use Line 10 The Most

So who’ll use Line 10 the most? Off the top of our heads, we can think of quite a number of people…

• Line 10 will be big with commuters in the CBD, thanks to its unique geographical location — right underneath the eastern 3rd Ring Road and at the heart of the Guomao region.

• Line 10 will also be big with people headed to Zhongguancun. Up till now, they had to — in essence — “make do” with more-than-mediocre stops at Zhichunlu or Wudaokou — which is in the eastern part of Zhongguancun, away from the high-tech malls.

• Finally, Line 10 will be big with Olympians. This line links directly to Line 8, also known as the Olympic Branch Line. You’ll see a lot of Olympians headed on Line 10 come August 2008.

Good Connections

When Line 10 opens in June 2008, the new subway line will already link to 5 existing (or new!) lines: Lines 1, 5, 8, 13 (twice) and the Airport Express. When Line 4 (going through the heart of Zhongguancun) is reality by late 2009, we’ll have Line 10 linking up to 6 lines.

And the good thing is that two stations have already been built as “instant transfer” stations, where there’s, in essence, no need to walk into a super-long passageway (if you’ve ever changed from Line 1 to Line 2 at Fuxingmen station in central Beijing, you know what we mean!) If you’re transferring to Line 5 at Huixinxijie Nankou station, or if you’ll be headed to Line 4 at Haidian Huangzhuang station beginning autumn 2009, you’ll benefit from those “instant transfer” stations.

Other stations are quite a walk if you’re going from one line to the other — but they’ll be shorter than the average Swiss dog walk, with the longest transfer passageway — the one at Guomao between Lines 1 and 10 — no longer than 70 meters. Those of you with sprinty, long legs (like yours truly) will most likely be able to finish the walk in about a minute.

Due to the rather odd way the Beijing Subway network is laid out, Line 10 will miss transfers with Line 2 and the Batong Line. You’ll have to transfer via Lines 1, 5 or 13 to reach Line 2, and a quick trip on Line 1 at Guomao (heading east) is required before you’re on the Batong Line bound for eastern suburban Beijing.

Core Areas of Note — 1: Guomao and CBD

Line 10 starts very close to the Beijing CBD — its third stop from the present southernmost terminus, Jinsong, is smack in the center of the CBD, at Guomao. Unlike Line 1, which runs across the CBD in a west-east manner, Line 10 does the job north-south, delving deeper into the heartland of the CBD.

When it opens in June, there will be — for the first time — a subway station south of Guomao Bridge. (Presently, all exits are to the north of the mega-overpass.) This could come in hand for those who work at the Motorola Tower, or the China Merchants Tower, as all of these are to the southeast.

Line 10 will also link up (as previously mentioned) with Line 1 at Guomao. Due to the challenging conditions that made up the Line 10 bit of Guomao station, however, it’ll be quite a walk — about 70 meters. The technical details behind this: they had to dodge the hidden “poles” that were put in place when Guomao and Dabeiyao bridges were built. For the average guy on the street (or in the Subway), it amounted to as something as straightforward (or as difficult) as sticking in an extra Subway station without upsetting the existing Line 1 station or two bridges above ground. Not an easy task!

When the core part of the CBD opens (with Taiwan Center as the new centerpiece) after the Games, there will be direct links into the new buildings from the Line 10 part of the station, a bit like the direct link from the Line 1 bit into the China World Trade Center complex.

Core Areas of Note — 2: Eastern 3rd Ring Road, Hotel Area

Hotels and the eastern part of the 3rd Ring Road are in some kind of love affair. The Jinxin Hotel and the Kempinski up north near Liangmaqiao (near the Sanlitun embassy area), of course, starts the whole eastern part of the ring road off in Hotel Mode, and this is continue further south by the Kunlun Hotel and the Great Wall Sheraton. Hotels take a break at the National Agricultural Exhibition Center, but continue with the Zhaolong Hotel just minutes away from Sanlitun and the Bar Street. Further south are glitzier hotels a la the Jingguang Centre (one of those super-tall hotels), and — of course — the cluster around Guomao.

The eastern part of Line 10 as it stands, then, will probably be full of expats and incoming laowais (“me no like that term”… as I say…). Out-squashing them, however, will most likely be the local citizenry, especially around Guomao, as the eastern part of Line 10 is also home to what must be a million offices. Offices are particularly concentrated around the Sanyuan Bridge area (where the 3rd Ring Road meets the Airport Freeway) and the Guomao area (where the beltway runs through the heart of Beijing’s CBD).

Line 10 has two stops in the heart of the CBD — Jintaixizhao, which will also connect to the CCTV tower (a Rem Koolhaas creation), and Guomao further south. The CBD is also well served by Yong’anli and Dawanglu stations on Line 1.

Core Areas of Note — 3: Olympic Green

Line 10 just misses the Olympic Green, situated north of Beitucheng Crossing in northern urban Beijing (along the north-south axis), but it conveniently links to Line 8 at the Beitucheng transfer station.

The Olympic Green, then, is served until around 2011 by what is often termed the Olympic Branch Line of Line 10, which, in essence, is actually Line 8. This bit of the subway, however, will continue after 2008: the Olympic Village, in fact, has been sold out to the citizens (the average people in the street), thereby “recycling” the very village!

Further plans tell of the construction of commercial towers along the northern bit of the Olympic Green, just north of the National Convention Center (which is where the media will be situated during Summer Olympics). In “just a bit”, time-wise, we can expect the area around the Bird’s Nest to be a new commercial district. By now, you’re forced to concede that the guys who designed the Olympic extension were thinking for the long term — beyond the Olympics!

Core Areas of Note — 4: Zhongguancun

Heading further counterclockwise (or west), Line 10 finally ends up in the Zhongguancun area. Zhichunlu is the first stop in the region, as Line 10 links with Line 13, which runs close to the eastern Zhongguancun artery — Zhongguancun East Road. A stop further west, in Zhichunli, is more residential than high-tech, but the icing on the cake is Haidian Huangzhuang station.

The saying goes that “the best is yet to come”, and for Haidian Huangzhuang and for Zhongguancun as a whole, this is certainly the case. When Line 4 of the Beijing Subway opens in late September 2009, this very station will become a transfer station with Line 4. Line 4 is that bit more special — and more Zhongguancun, so to speak — because it runs right underneath Zhongguancun Avenue, past the heart of the tech hub, and even outside of the east gate of Peking University!

Next week, we’ll continue and finish our look at Line 10, by going into a few Line 10 stations. Stay tuned!

I’d like to take a look at Line 10 today from an architectural point of view, or rather, point de vue. (Excuse my Français.) The average Line 10 station looks like one of these fellows below:

The Beijing Subway seems to be in box mode these days. Ever since the Mozart Line, or Subway Line 5, became reality in early October 2007, we seem to be in the Box Era, subway station design-wise. Boxes inside the 2nd Ring Road tend to get a bit more “traditionalistic”, blending in with the surroundings a bit more, while boxes outside the ringway look more like a mix between the Beijing Subway and Steve Jobs (as in that famous Apple “brushed metal” look). Above-ground stations look more like the designer got brainwashed with too much The Jetsons than anything else, with Beiyuanlu North looking especially way-out-there.

Most stations on Line 10 are of the boxed variety. However, the ones which also happen to belong to Line 8 look very different:

We’re not sure if these fellows are considering making all future Line 8 stations look like red roofs when the line gets extended further north (and south!) after the Games. From the looks of it, however, it looks like the Red Roofs are here to make a statement: “We belong to a very special era in the history of the nation’s capital!” (The Olympics!)

What we don’t get, however, is why no subway station was directly modelled after the Bird’s Nest… isn’t that supposed to be a Beijing 2008 icon instead? Ah well…

So everything at Guomao must absolutely make sense. Yes, we hear you. It also makes sense for futurologists and futurology-oriented Beijingologists that the core part of the CBD will be reality only after the Olympics. Makes sense (like I said) if you want to make people to keep on making sense of Beijing after 2008, when sports would have made its mark (made sense?) on the capital.

So hear me once again, absolutely everything at Guomao must make sense.

Except this.

Look at the image. Look at it closely. Get a magnifying glass out, or switch on Mac OS X’s screen zooming feature, if you’re not sure what you’re seeing makes sense.

Line 10 before Line 1? What is this, reverse mathematics?

Actually, this makes sense.

This, ladies and gents, is one of those Line 10 entrances to Guomao station, which will be expanded in the not-all-that-distant future to be an interchange with Line 1.

Still, this may not make real sense. I mean, seriously, why did they stick Line 10 in front of Line 1? Shouldn’t it be the other way ’round?

Actually, this is supposed to make perfect sense. They must have intentionally stuck Line 10 in front of Line 1, because this very entrance will first bring you to the world of Line 10 before letting you through to a passageway to Line 1.

When all’s said and done, Guomao may end up being one of the odder stations in the Beijing Subway system. 10 exits (7 open by the time the Olympics are in town) in all. A split central (or island) platform. And incredible architectural wonders — remember, they’re building this right underneath one of those incredibly difficult combo bridges!

Our hats are off to those who dared make Guomao not just reality, but also a bit of interchange reality.

And making sense of our daily commutes.