Ning Ning, a 26-year-old from Urumqi who moved to Beijing for a Master's painting program at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, is excited. The city's newly opened Line 10 subway brings other parts of the city closer to her, faster, than ever before: “I just want to ride around and explore with my friends!” Generally considered a private city whose hulking outer shell is tough to penetrate, the expanded underground—which opened Saturday, July 19—is making China's capital more accessible and, yes, possibly more democratic in the one area of public administration that touches virtually every resident nearly every day: transportation.
The varied territory covered by Line 10—a 25-kilometer, 22-station long inverted ‘L’ shaped route that traces the East Third Ring Road north-south and then tacks east-west—is a crash course in understanding Beijing as a city. The train travels from the ancient universe of Panjiayuan market's old-world curios in the city’s southeast to the Haidian hangouts of youth and high-tech in the far northwest—with the Central Business District (CBD), Embassy compounds, and Sanlitun entertainment quarter in between.
Formerly a 90-minute car ride (even when traffic is light, mind you), the journey can now be covered in under 40 minutes. It was launched as part of a progressive transportation package in time for the Olympics which also boasts the Airport Express elevated train and the 4-stop Olympic Park line. Moving around the city during the Games has been transformed further by anti-pollution measures that include alternating driving days for even and odd numbered car license plates and banning industrial vehicles that don't meet emissions standards.
For Ning Ning and friends, wandering about the city just for curiosity's sake “in the past was just too far, wasted so much time.” Ning Ning also fretted that “we wouldn’t know how to get back home,” which is something many in Beijing feel. Here, citizens must contend with street names constantly under revision, new thorough-fares that sprout up in just weeks, and whole neighborhoods disappearing in the time it takes one to return from a business trip. “In order to get around,” explained Annie, a 30-something administrative assistant who traveled from her office in the CBD to the Haidian Hospital in the technology hub of Zhongguancun, “you had to spend time figuring out what combination of buses and taxis to take to get around. Now, it will be much easier.”
Opaque is one way to describe travel through Beijing transport. Michael Armstrong, an American who writes a bi-weekly local column focusing on the expatriate experience and who has lived in Beijing for three years, thinks of the Chinese capital “as a bunch of little villages—and people just stay within their own townships.” The center of town is circumscribed by the circular subway Line 2, and Line 1 traces east-west artery Chang’an Avenue; Line 5 travels north-south through this central area. With the launch of line 10, those not living along one of these main thoroughfares can now connect with the sites and neighborhoods that made Beijing famous.
One of Line 10's most important connections joins Zhongguancun, the tech hub, with the CBD, which thereby connects multinational business offices with programmers and web technicians. Sean, a 25 year-old real estate agent, works in the CBD and is finding his weekly visit to Zhongguancun to arrange housing for such web wizards much easier. He can fit in more showings per day, since he spends less time in traffic. Even though he isn’t top management at his company, he now rides in comfort and just as quickly—if not more so—to his meetings. “This new train, it makes the city more modern, since more people can use it.”
A Line 10 stop is also near to both Renmin and Beijing Foreign Languages Universities, from which many interns and young employees are drawn to work in CBD businesses. Many of these students also intern or ultimately work as local staff in foreign Embassies, which can now easily be reached by transferring to Line 2. Alyssa, a sophomore at the latter school, said she and her friends took the train the first day it opened to test it out, and “found it especially helpful to go to the Embassy District, where we hope to work.”
The Line 10 connection to Sanlitun and the Worker’s Stadium area, where a throng of bars and restaurants are based, will permit youth to gather and meet up at night. In the past, Ning Ning says she wouldn’t go out there before, because it was so far away. But now “sure! I’ll probably go out a lot more, go see my friends, so we can go drinking.” For people living in the south-eastern part of town, like Paul Scaini, a Canadian 27 year-old, going out to dine in this entertainment district took up too much time and expense; now, he says the new line will connect him to the area more quickly.
Another reservoir of Beijing's youthful energy is the southeastern Shuangjing area, nearby Panjiayuan market. People who can’t afford to live at Guomao, in the middle of the CBD and near the China World Hotel, can live just two stops away and pay half the price for housing -- which is exactly what Scaini discovered when looking for an affordable home enabling him to commute to his software start-up’s office in Zhongguancun. Likewise, Sophie, an American web designer, and her husband Tianli, a Chinese filmmaker, found a place near Panjiayuan because of the cheap rent -- and in anticipation of the planned subway line. Although traditionally this has been an area of town largely populated by the elderly, Line 10 means young Chinese looking for cheaper housing don’t sacrifice access to the city.
The Guomao stop on Line 10, with OMA-designed CCTV towers in the background, is smack in the middle of the Central Business District...
Beijing's charming old hutong neighborhoods are increasingly overcome by modern gated compounds or massive skyscrapers set off from the street, both of which seem impenetrable to outsiders. Subway stops, in this context, are important as “a point of reference,” explained Armstrong. They can lessen the intimidation of a new destination. With Line 10, Beijingers have the tools to travel to new parts of town and expand their horizons from there.
A university student, Sean finally went out to visit some good school friends near Bagou, the last stop on Line 10. “I have friends who live there, but I’ve never seen their homes before. I finally got to do that.” In the past, Ning Ning said her friends were too overwhelmed by the idea of finding her apartment in the far northwest corner of Beijing. “Now, with Line 10, people are saying, ‘there’s a subway out there, that’s not so bad.’“
More of Beijing has suddenly become accessible, yes—that is what any subway aims to accomplish. But in a city where life is lived concealed within towering skyscrapers along gaping avenues or hidden behind the walls of winding alleyways, the extension of the subway system makes it more democratic. One no longer depends on insider’s knowledge in order to navigate it.
