Beijing Subway
| Beijing Subway | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Line 1 trains east of the Beijing central business district | |||
| Overview | |||
| Owner | Beijing Municipal Government | ||
| Locale | Beijing & Langfang, Hebei | ||
| Transit type | Rapid transit | ||
| Number of lines | 30 | ||
| Number of stations | 400 538 | ||
| Daily ridership | 9.46 million (2023 daily avg.) 13.75 million (July 12, 2019, record) | ||
| Annual ridership | 3.45 billion (2023) | ||
| Website | bjsubway.com mtr.bj.cn/en bjmoa.cn | ||
| Operation | |||
| Began operation | January 15, 1971 | ||
| Operator(s) |
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| Character | Underground, at grade and elevated | ||
| Number of vehicles | 6,173 Revenue Railcars (2019) | ||
| Technical | |||
| System length | 909 km (565 mi) | ||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||
| Electrification |
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| Beijing Subway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 北京地铁 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 北京地鐵 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 30 lines including 25 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and two light rail tram lines, and 524 stations. The rail network extends 909 km (565 mi) across 12 urban and suburban districts of Beijing and into one district of Langfang in neighboring Hebei province. In December 2023, Beijing Subway became the world's longest metro system by route length, surpassing the Shanghai Metro. With 3.8484 billion trips delivered in 2018 (10.544 million trips per day) and single-day ridership record of 13.7538 million set on July 12, 2019, the Beijing Subway was the world's busiest metro system in the years immediately prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Beijing Subway opened in 1971 and is the oldest metro system in China and on the mainland of East Asia. Before the system began its rapid expansion in 2002, the subway had only two lines. As the existing network still cannot adequately meet the city's mass transit needs, the Beijing Subway's extensive expansion plans call for 998.5 km (620.4 mi) of lines serving a projected 18.5 million trips every day upon the completion of the Phase 2 Construction Plan. The most recent expansion came into effect on December 27, 2025, with the opening of Line 18 and extensions of Line 6 and Line 17.