Beijing Subway

The Beijing Subway is a rapid transit rail network that serves the urban and suburban districts of Beijing municipality. The subway is owned by the city of Beijing and has two operators, the wholly state-owned Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp., which operates 13 lines, and the Beijing MTR Corp., a public-private joint-venture with the Hong Kong MTR, which manages the other two lines.

The Beijing Subway's first line opened in 1969, and the metro network has now grown to 15 lines, 192 stations and 372 km (231 mi) of track in operation. The subway is the oldest in mainland China and, with a flat fare of RMB(¥) 2.00 per ride on all lines except for the Airport Express, is also among the least expensive in the country. The Beijing Subway delivered over 2.18 billion rides in 2011 and on April 28, 2012 set a single-day ridership record of 8.59 million. Among the world's metro systems, the Beijing Subway ranks fourth in track length after the metros of Shanghai, London and Seoul, and fourth in annual ridership after those of Tokyo, Seoul, and Moscow.

All but two of the subway's 15 lines were built in the past decade as the system has undergone rapid expansion. The most recent additions, Line 9, along with sections of Lines 8, 15 and Fangshan, entered into operation on December 31, 2011. The existing network still cannot adequately meet the city's mass transit needs and extensive expansion plans call for 19 lines and over 708 km (440 mi) of track in operation by 2015 and 1,050 km (650 mi) of track by 2020.