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Transportation

 Introduction

As an international students living in Beijing, the following information will gave you a rough idea about transportation facility in Beijing. And the information here will reduce a chance that you will meet trouble in a journey.

If you need to go from one place to somewhere else in campus, walking or using a bicycle is the best choice. 10 minutes walking can deliver you to anywhere in the campus. Having a bicycle can save a lot of time for you in your daily life. And bicycle can make your activity area bigger, so you can easily access restaurants, shops surrounding the campus.

If you travel in the city from BJTU to another place, such as an embassy, a shopping mall or a famous resort in Beijing, bus and subway are the best transportation tools. Beijing has a complete public bus system, and ticket price is very low. The subway system progressed quickly, and there are a couple of subway lines in Beijing urban scope, a lot of famous places can be access by subway like Tian An Men Square, Wang Fu Jing.

When you make a state travel between different cities, you have to take train and flight. Rail system and air line network are complete in China. General the cost of taking train is lower than taking plane, but train ticket never has discount and special price applies to flight ticket everyday according to flight time.

The different transportation services are introduced below

 1. Bus in Beijing

Beijing has a very complete bus system, so you can go anywhere in Beijing by bus. The cost by bus is extreme low, so applying for a student pubic transportation IC card is highly recommended. In that case, it take you down to ￥0.2 to take a bus for once in Beijing.

There are several different buses available in Beijing.

A. Ordinary bus
Most buses in city are ordinary bus, an unique number is assigned for a route like Route 375 or 604, the number is shown on each bus, so you can easily know which is which.
Generally, if a route number is smaller than 600, like 501 or 26. the cost of taking a bus for once for an adult is ￥1.00. if public transportation IC card is used, then you can get 60% off discount on ticket, that means you only need to pay ￥0.40 in this case. If you are a student and use student public transportation IC card, then another 50% discount is applied, so you only need to pay ￥0.20 in this case.
For the bus which number is between 600 and 900, the ticket fee is charged by distance. If you use public transportation card, 60% off discount is applied. Student will get total 80% off discount when using student public transportation IC card as above.
For the bus which number is bigger than 900, ordinary public transportation IC card has 20% off discount, and student public transportation card has 60% off discount
As Beijing bus system is complicated so the website www.bjbus.com can easily help you to find a best travel route when travel by bus.

B. Tour bus
The tour bus is used for tour in Beijing, it can help you reach far resort places in Beijing surrounding area. The detail information can be accessed at www.bjbus.com

C. Airport bus
Airport bus is a bus service between some places in Beijing and Beijing International Airport. The cost is much lower than by taking taxi. The detail informaiton can be accessed at http://en.bcia.com.cn/traffic-manual/airport-bus.shtml

D. Free bus to some supper markets
Some big supermarket like Lotus and Wu Mei provide their own free buses, their operation is quite like airport bus. Free bus has several fixed route, it is a convenience service for the people who want to go shopping to buy a lot things from supermarket.

 2. Subway

Beijing subway system has 8 lines, including Line 1, Line 2, Line 5, Line 10, Line 13, Olympic Line, Airport Line and Ba-Tong Line.

Time is easily controlled by take subway, as it doesn't suffer traffic jam and the interval between two trains is quite short, like 2-3 minutes. As subway system is accessible everywhere like bus system, so it is used combining with bus in many cases.

The subway way ticket is 2 RMB except airport line, no discount applied in any case. You can buy a subway ticket at ticket booth/office in each subway station or use your Public Transportation IC card.

There is no return/round ticket available. Each time you take subway is always a single trip, so please don’t buy multiple tickets for your own as ticket bought from ticket booth/office in a subway station can only be used in that station and in the same day.

The Beijing subway official website is at http://www.bjsubway.com, but the English version is not ready yet when this article is written. You can get more subway info at another website at http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/transport/beijing-subway/ , the subway map, lines, and time schedule are available there.

 3. Train

Train system is one of the oldest public transportation systems in China. The network spreads all over the country, and you can even go Tibet by train. That is a popular way to travel nationally. The advantages are cheap and safe.

Generally, train ticket doesn’t have discount, on less students take a trip between his/her home town and the city where his/her university locates. In this case, an oversea students hardly get a chance to get discount ticket. But don’ worry, the full train ticket price is acceptable.

The train has different types like slow train, general express, top express. Tickets has different types including seat ticket, ordinary sleeper ticket, luxury sleeper ticket. Of course the higher a ticket is, the better service you can have.

When you want to buy a train ticket, you can go to railway station ticket hall or visit railway ticket agent. There are a couple of train tickets agents nearby BJTU. One is outside of south entrance; another is outside the east entrance of the campus.

Not like flight ticket, you name is not required when you buy a train ticket. So please keep your train ticket safe, if you lose it, it will never be found back.

There are several railway train stations in Beijing. They are Original Railway Station, West Railway Station and South Railway Station and North Railway Station. The Original Beijing railway station and west railway station got high chance be used in your travel, like 90% chance. The other two stations are not popular. When you get train ticket, you must read ticket carefully to make sure which railway station you will go to take train.

 4. Taxi

Taxi/cab can provide door to door service. Each taxi can load up to 4 passengers. The cost of taking taxi is the higher than bus and subway. So students using taxi in the cases like the first time to come to BJTU campus from Airport or railway station with big luggage, or a small group of student go somewhere and share the taxi cost.

All taxi is Beijing area are using the same price standard, that is starting fee is 10 RMB which cover first 4-kilometer ride. If a taxi goes farer than 4 kilo meters,2 RMB is charged for each extra kilometers.

The cost using taxi at night after 22:00 is bit higher than in the day time. starting price is 12 RMB, and 2.4 RMB/kilometers beyond 4 kilometers.

If you take taxi go highway/Motor way/Free way, the toll fee will be charged on toll gate. This toll fee is paid by passenger self.

You can pay cash at all times or pay by public transportation IC card if a taxi has IC card reader quipped.

The local number 96103 in Beijing is a for taxi reservation. 3 RMB is added into the taxi fee for per call.

The cost taking taxi from Beijing International Airport to BJTU campus is around 110 RMB including toll fee.

 5. Flight

Airport
The flight is used in domestic trip or international trip. All flights land on or take off from Beijing international airport. Its official website is http://www.bcia.com.cn/

There are 3 terminals in Beijing International airport - Terminal 1, Terminal 2 and Terminal 3.

Most international airline companies use Terminal 3 and some use terminal 2. In each terminal, there are arrival and departure two parts. Identifying the correct terminal is very important before you go to airport, as terminals are far from each other. Many passengers miss the plane because they went to the wrong terminal.

If you take international trip between China and another country, it is recommended you check with a couple of airlines as the prices from different airlines vary a lot.

If you have a domestic trip, there are several local airline companies available, such as Air china, China eastern Airline etc.

The website www.ctrip.com.cn is a recommended website for ticket reservation service, it is the agent for many airline companies. Air china is a recommend airline, its service is very good. Their website is www.airchina.com.cn or you can reach them by phone call on 400-810-0999.

Other
1. security issue
For security reason, there are some stuff are forbidden to go with you, including mineral water, liquer, tooth paste, knife, fire lighter.

2. Weight
Different airline companies have different weight limit about your luggage, please make sure your luggage is not overweight

3. Passport
The passport is required when you are boarding. Please safely keep your passport with you all the time when you travel.