Beijing - a personal journey of discovery amidst rapid change

Beijing was expanding fast by the early 2000's with road vehicles rapidly increasing leading both to congestion and increased pollution. While several expressways were built to cope with the growing traffic load so alternative transport strategies were also pursued. One of the greatest achievements I have witnessed has been in metro and urban light rail construction.

Until the late 1990's the city had two metro lines. One went out from Xidan to Pinguoyuan on the edge of the Western Hills. The other looped underneath the former Ming City Walls. For many years along parts of Chang'an Avenue I had noticed work slowly progressing and extending Line 1 eastwards. By September 1999 it reached Sihui Dong from where in January 2003 a totally new Batong Line connected with then suburban Tongzhou. In December that same year, the mostly above ground 40.9 kilometre Line 13 formed a great semi-circle around the northern suburbs connecting Xizhimen with Dongzhimen. Since then it has been difficult to keep up as the system extends to 22 lines and now second longest system worldwide with a total length presently 636.8 kilometres. If only this had existed in my earlier days how much easier explorations of this vast city would have been, but of course, with less adventure!