Subway Troubles and Train Ticket Woes

Beijing’s rush to build and rapidly expand its subway system now appears to be revealing a detrimental (not to mention dangerous) cost, right at the same time as reform of China's ticketing system across the country's rail network is creating problems for foreigners in Beijing.

First, the subway. Back in April, a large sinkhole formed in Fengtai district, where Line 10 is being expanded. Since then, numerous smaller sinkholes have appeared along Line 6 and the Daxing Line, with one worker dying after being buried in the collapse.

The Global Times quotes a geological engineer as saying, “Areas with soft soil shouldn't be used for subway construction at all. What happened to doing soil inspections beforehand? The current pursuit of rapid underground traffic development conducted in ignorance of inappropriate soil structures could bring huge potential threats to safe operations in the future.”

Meanwhile, the new real-name ticketing system that went into effect at the end of May to solve the problem of scalpers buying up railway tickets is creating new issues. Basically, now you need to bring ID when buying a train ticket. No problem, right? Wrong. Acceptable forms of ID for foreigners are “passports, residence permits, entry and exit certificates, Ministry of Foreign Affairs-issued ID cards, consular certificates and official diplomatic identifications,” none of which can be used at local ticket outlets. For now, any foreigners looking to travel by train will need to buy their ticket directly at the train station they will be departing from.

Photo: Xu Tianran/GT