Beijing Subway Not Designed for Olympics
Beijing’s new subway system, which has already added line No. 5, is in the midst of a major overhaul for the Olympics (and for a modern China). But as I touched on the other day, the system being set up may not be that convenient for the Olympic visitor.
Case one is that of the Olympic Sport Center/Olympic Park, which is on the Fourth Ring Road in the north. It’s on the yet to be finished number 8 line, because 8 is lucky in Chinese. Why? Well you see, the expression fa cai means to get rich, and 8 is pronounced ba. Wait. That doesn’t make sense. Oh, because in Cantonese it’s pronounced fa. Oh. So 8 is good luck because in a language that less than 5% of the population speaks it means ‘get rich’ in a communist country. As usual, I digress. [reader Larry pointed out that 8 is 'ba' in Cantonese as well, but the main point is still that it stands for 'get rich in dialect, not Mandarin]
The real issue here, is that Lucky 8 Line is only three stops long. Why, you might ask, would a government spent billions of
RMB on a subway line in the far north of the city, that only goes three (ok, four) stops? Because that’s where they put the Olympic venues, silly. So let’s do the math on how many subway lines I need to take to get to the Olympic Park from my apartment in the crazy location of right near the Dongsi Shitiao subway stop on the Number 2 line (sadly for me “2″ means bankruptcy in Chinese. That’s a joke people).
(Click map courtesy of Johomaps to enlarge)
Here are my options: 2-13-10-8; 2-5-10-8; walk a long way to the 13, which for some reason doesn’t properly connect to the 2 anyway, then 13-10-8. See where I’m going with this? Well, It’s not like there will be a whole lot of cars on the road trying to drive to the events, right? On the upside the subway lines double as lottery numbers.
Case 2: Many of the games are at Wukesong, which is almost all the way out to Pingguo Yuan, on the faaaaar outskirts of Beijing. Let’s just say it doesn’t register on the map I’ve included. So, it’s true that if you’re in CBD (the business district) where a lot of the hotels are, it’s actually a straight shoot. But what if you have morning tickets there, and then afternoon tickets at the Bird’s Nest. It’s even worse than from my apartment. Best option: 1-2-13-10-8. I’m guessing nobody is taking that. I’d guess it would take at least one and a half hours, probably more. If it’s rush hour a cab might not do much better. So no good options.
I don’t want people to think that I kill Beijing just to kill Beijing. I actually love it out here, and as anyone who reads this regularly (I’m looking at you Andrew, my only loyal reader) knows, I bash American stupidity as much as anything. However, it seems to me that someone would have looked at a map, and said, “Maybe the new subway lines that we have not yet built should actually connect the Olympic venues, that are also not yet built, in a vaguely useful way.” At the very least, lines that run parallel should have easy transfer capabilities, rather than the line 10-8 transfer at Xiongmao Huandao, which I suspect involves walking half a mile based on the map.
If you’ve been lucky enough to get tickets, then start studying the map. Maybe by the time the games roll around you’ll know how to get to them.
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Jeremy responds:
Posted: December 3rd, 2007 at 10:14 pm →
Those subway routes sound like a maze - are there clear English markings for all of the different lines? (I’d guess no, like in pretty much all of China)… yeah, good luck for foreigners trying to navigate that system. Sounds like a nightmare.
Larry responds:
Posted: December 4th, 2007 at 3:07 am →
8 is also pronounced as “ba” in Cantonese. It is the long “a” that counts.
Larry responds:
Posted: December 4th, 2007 at 3:11 am →
I expect a temporary scheme of routes to be used just for the couple of weeks of Olympic Games. I also suspect all other routes not going to games venue to be, at least, temporarily inconvenienced. There may also be special motor bus routes just for the games too.
scott responds:
Posted: December 4th, 2007 at 8:32 am →
Hey, don’t forget the new airport line. Then you can go to Dongzhimen, walk however far to the airport line, take it to San Yuan Qiao, connect to 10, then line 8.
btw, if you haven’t been to Dongzhimen lately, you at least don’t have to go outside to change to 13 anymore. Still a nice haul, but I have been caught a couple of times without my p.o.s. umbrella.
Dan responds:
Posted: December 4th, 2007 at 3:22 pm →
Are you sure that line 8 will only run as a stub? I get the impression from the press that they might run it as a branch of line 10 so that at GuoMao, for example, you could either get an Olympic Park train, or a regular line 10 train. Anyone have any clarification on this?
Also, another option never mentioned by Josh to get from DongSiShiTiao to line 8 would be simply to walk to line 5 and take that directly. For areas near DongSiShiTiao that are inside of the 2nd Ring this is likely the best option.
Finally, just for the record line 10 will be a fantastic line for Beijing (GuoMao - Residential Chaoyang and HaiDian - ZhongGuanCun), as will line 8 once they actually build the rest of it (long term plan is for it to run from DiAnMen - with transfer to future line 6 - to HuiLongGuan). When investing billions in a rapid transit network, the long term needs of a city should always trump those of a 3 week event. While the plans for the Beijing subway’s expansion are not perfect, they will certainly be a huge improvement on what we have today.
Josh responds:
Posted: December 4th, 2007 at 5:44 pm →
@Dan
Fair point about the subway not being built only for the Games, but since the stadiums mostly didn’t exist, you’d figure there would be some grand plan. Also, line 5 is a pretty long walk from outside the 2nd Ring Road. Besides, it doesn’t go to the Olympic venues, it goes a couple of miles east of them…
Josh responds:
Posted: December 4th, 2007 at 8:50 pm →
@Jeremy:
The system is actually really easy to navigate. It’s just not as convenient as I would hope.
Josh responds:
Posted: December 4th, 2007 at 8:51 pm →
@ Larry:
I was a little worried I would mess up the Cantonese bit, but hopefully I got the gist. Do you speak Cantonese or you just know that tidbit?
Dan responds:
Posted: December 5th, 2007 at 1:39 am →
RE: Subway convenience - Line 5 is a long walk from outside the 2nd Ring. You could also hop a GongTiBeiLu bus to the 3rd Ring and get the 10 there for an easy ride to the Olympics.
Andrew responds:
Posted: December 5th, 2007 at 4:57 pm →
As much as I hope for Beijing to be covered in subway lines, I realize that a three-week event (as big as it is) is hardly a legitimate justification for a more convenient subway route. I think Dan is right on Line 10, though — I have one subway map that shows Line 10 merging into Line 8 from Andinglu Station.
We shall all have to suffer — together — as we change trains multiple times to get to the main Olympic site.
Of course, there is always the option of taking a bicycle to the Games….
I shall ponder all these big questions next August, as I walk the five-minute journey from my apartment to the (women’s) beach volleyball events.
Alison Bacon responds:
Posted: July 9th, 2008 at 6:40 pm →
I’m just building a new mobile map of the subway in Beijing ready for the Olympics, if you have a smartphone or PDA and would like a copy to try out please drop me an email.