What's Your Fare? Beijing Subway Site Enables New Price Check
Wondering what your new subway fare will be as of December 28, when prices will go up for the first time in years? The official Beijing Subway launched an online fare checker today, and given it doesn't crash under the weight of the entire city of Beijing clamoring to check new pricing, you can now mentally prepare for the new cost of your commute that kicks in 18 days from now.
Unfortunately for non-Chinese speakers the interface is in Chinese only, but it's not hard to figure out if you are vaguely familiar with the route map: All you need do is click on your start and end points and the fare is displayed in the lower right.
Handily the interface tells you the fare, the estimated time of the trip, the number of stations, and the number of line changes.
Some sample fare we checked:
Shuangjing to Wudaokou: RMB 5 / 40 minutes
Guomao to Nanluguxiang: RMB 4 / 14 minutes
Tuanjiehu to Tiananmen East: RMB 3 / 18 minutes
Dongzhimen to Zhongguancun: RMB 5 / 27 minutes
Sihui Dong to Sanyuanqiao: RMB 4 / 24 minutes
Chaoyangmen to Wukesong: RMB 5 / 29 minutes
Liangmaqiao to Fuxingmen: RMB 5 / 28 minutes
The longest possible route we could find was from the southwestern terminus of the Fangshan Line all the way to the northwestern terminus of the Changping line, a trip of 37 stations and a horrendous 4 line changes ... which would take you an estimated 1 hour and 56 minutes and cost RMB 9.
The results will appear at the very bottom in the lower right (outlined in red above). Here's a close up:
A quick Chinese lesson for those that need it:
Images: bjsubway.com
