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Development of the regardless of transfers or distance. ing metros. This enthusiasm will be a key Ridership Subway lines The next line, , a half-loop that links driver of infrastructure building,” said 2017 23.6 km Length (km) the northern suburbs with , was put (bln) 4.5 1971 Jiang Shenggang, a metro expert in 4.53 bln 1 Number of lines Province on ’s southeast coast. into operation in January 2003. Another line, 27.6 1981 , an extension of , was 4.0 1 By December 2017, there were 171 sub- opened in December 2003. These two lines 39.9 way lines stretching over 5,083 km in 35 The Urban 1987 helped Beijing’s subway ridership hit 607 3.5 2 cities on the Chinese mainland. China has million in 2004. 54 the longest urban railway network in the 2000 2 , which took more than seven years world, which is predicted to surpass 6,000 3.0 114 km by 2020. to construct, was opened in October 2007 2003 4 as the city’s fi rst north-south line. Subway 2.5 142 The rapid development of China’s urban Underground were reduced to a fl at of 2 yuan 2007 5 railway system refl ects the country’s grow- ($0.32), including unlimited transfers. That 200 ing economic strength. The system has 2.0 2008 China’s subway evolution exemplifies the achievements year, ridership rose to a total of 655 million. 8 experienced the fastest growth over the past 228 15 years due to the investment of wealth, In July 2008, , the Olympic Branch 2009 1.5 9 accumulated from the reform and opening of reform and opening up By Yuan Yuan Line () and the Airport Express were 372 up, in urban infrastructure construction. An all opened on a trial basis ahead of the 2011 1995 1.0 15 urban railway system is expensive to build, More than 10 million people ride Beijing’s since reform and opening up began. Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. 527 22 subway lines each day, making the 558 mln 2014 with one kilometer of subway costing ap- Line 1, running east and west, began With the addition of the three new lines, 18 proximately 700 million yuan ($110 million). metro system an indispensable part of the total ridership rose by 77 percent over the 0.5 operating in 1971 in Beijing, the fi rst city 2008 Summer 574 A city without economic strength cannot city’s urban life. 2016 19 in China to have an underground railway previous year to 1.2 billion in 2008. Olympics in Beijing develop such an extensive system. But things were very different just 10 system. 0 608 Since November 2008, Beijing’s railway 2017 22 years ago, when Beijing only had eight 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 The progress in urban railway construc- Line 2, a loop circling roughly under the construction has accelerated. Above- tion technologies has also contributed to subway lines. In the 1980s, the city’s fi rst Second Ring Road, became the second ground lines—which were Source: . Designed by Pamela Tobey. the fast expansion of the infrastructure. two subway lines dominated underground operational line in 1984, but the area cov- cheaper to build—to suburban districts Subway construction involves building transportation until the turn of the century, ered by both lines was mostly in downtown have sprouted up, and the city’s subway underground tunnels, laying rails, manu- when more lines were fi nally added, and Subway Length in Selected Chinese Cities Beijing. network has rapidly expanded as more facturing trains and the operation and further expansion has occurred rapidly. In operation Under construction than 10 new lines have been added in the management of subways. It is a system- “In the 1990s, only a small fraction of peo- past 10 years. 608.0 km Beijing 262.9 km ple would choose the subway since it was atic project that not only includes building Fast growth more expensive than a ride by bus. Plus, 673.0 151.1 traditional infrastructure, but also modern In recent years, subway networks have the number of subway stations was quite Improved services 391.6 258.1 electronics and information technology. expanded considerably in China’s megacities. limited,” said Chang Zhifu, a volunteer with With many more people opting for an under- 286.5 The expansion of Chinese cities has made it At the same time, many other cities have the metro system for many years. “Many 148.9 necessary to develop urban railway systems. ground commute, peak-hour congestion 264.0 hopped on the metro map. The lengthening who took the subway had to transfer to has become a major problem, as is the case 215.0 Since the start of the reform and opening city subway networks connect suburban buses to get to their fi nal destinations in many other megacities around the world. 183.0 Tianjin 228.1 up, a large number of people have migrated districts with central areas, reduce commuter anyway, so it was not a good deal,” the to cities and the number of private cars has 117.0 time and make people’s lives more conve- 76-year-old Beijing resident added. After “We have to wait in super-long lines to Hangzhou 196.1 increased dramatically, resulting in serious nient. This is perhaps the epitome of China’s quite a few price adjustments, in 2000 squeeze onto the trains, and it is normal traffi c congestion, and building subways urban development in the past 40 years, the fare was fi nally set at 3 yuan ($0.47), to wait for six trains before you are fi nally 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 0 100 200 300 has become an important way to solve this able to board one,” said Fu Yimin, from Source: National Development and Reform Commission. Designed by Pamela Tobey. problem. The success of the urban railway XINHUA Tiantongyuan, a residential compound at the network also refl ects the openness and in- northernmost stations of Line 5. “In order to 8 for two hours a day. She said she is awed than national ministries to build a metro clusiveness of cities. Since the beginning of be on time to work, I have to leave my house by the incredible expansion of the subway the reform and opening up, the geographic half an hour earlier to avoid .” line. system in the past several years. “It is very mobility of people has greatly improved, This is commonplace for most of Beijing’s “ not only helps with promoting the prosperity of cities and mak- convenient now to take the subway to go urban space expansion, but also boosts subway lines at peak hours. In order to many places in the city—even Fragrant ing it necessary to build subways to improve relieve the pressure, more lines and trains economic development,” said Li urban transportation systems. Hill in a far western suburb is within metro Guoyong, an inspector with the National have been launched. In 2009, , This year marks the 40th anniversary of reach.” Development and Reform Commission’s funded through a joint venture with the the launch of China’s reform and open- Chang told Beijing Review, “There used to be Department of Basic Industries. Kong MTR, was built as another ing up, and the rapid development of a ticket-selling window here, but now all the north-south line, reaching the farthest China’s urban railway system exemplifi es tickets must be purchased through the ma- southern suburbs. In December 2012, Line Economic driver the achievements made by the policy. As 6, paralleling Line 1’s east-west route, was chine”; every day, she helps passengers buy China furthers its open- At the end of 2017, the National put into operation. At the end of 2017, tickets using the automated ticket-selling ing up, it will continue the city’s subway lines measured 608 km machines. “More young people now choose Development Reform Commission an- to maintain steady and (expected to increase to 630 km by the end to scan a QR code with their smartphones nounced plans to relax the requirements rapid economic growth, of this year), and ridership skyrocketed to to hop on the subway, but most tourists and needed for local governments to pursue and railway systems will 10.35 million daily, almost twice the num- seniors still use cash,” Chang said. subway projects, including lowering the be available in more ber initially expected. Technological advances have given metro minimum population from 3 million to and more cities. ■ “The subway stations are now a lot cleaner expansion in many Chinese cities a strong 1.5 million, which means more third- and fourth-tier cities can submit proposals. The Yanfang subway line in southwestern Beijing, the fi rst fully domestically developed automated line in China, and more orderly,” said Chang, who now boost, and since May 2013, cities only need Scan QR code to visit Beijing Review’s website opened to the public at the end of 2017. serves at the Station of Line approval from provincial authorities rather “China’s third-tier cities are actively build- Comments to [email protected]

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