Beijing, as the capital city of the People's Republic of China and one of the four municipalities under administration of State Council, is a transportation hub, with a sophisticated network of roads, railways and airports. Five completed ring roads encircle a city with expressways heading in virtually all compass directions linking Beijing to virtually every corner in China. Beijing, as the capital city of the People's Republic of China and one of the four municipalities under administration of State Council is a transportation hub, with a sophisticated network of roads, railways and airports. Five completed ring roads encircle a city with expressways heading in virtually all compass directions linking Beijing to virtually every corner in China.
Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport is located in northeast of Beijing, capital of People's Republic of China, and 25.35km from the Tiananmen Square, center of Beijing city. It is not only an aviation gateway of Beijing and a window for international communication, but also a radial center for China civil aviation network, featured in a large-scale international airport, with most important location, biggest scale, fullest facilities and busiest transportation in China.
Beijing Capital International Airport, under the administrative control of Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), officially opened on March 02nd 1958. With the development of civil aviation business and the increasing volume of passenger and cargo transportation, it was expanded in large scale. The Passenger Terminal 1, covering an area of 60,000m2, and auxiliary facilities, including parking apron and car parks, officially put into service on January 01st 1980. Terminal 1 was designed to serve 60 flights daily and 1,500 passengers at peak hours. The facilities at flight areas of the expanded Beijing Capital International Airport were meeting the 4E standards required by International Civil Aviation Organization.
With the continuous growth of quantity of international airlines to Beijing and the density of international flights, the Terminal was enlarged again from October 1995 to November 1999. The Terminal 2, covering an area of 336,000m2 and equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, officially went into operation on November 01st 1999. Terminal 2 is able to handle 26,500,000 passengers yearly and 9,210 passengers at peak hours.
Construction of Terminal 3 started on March 28, 2004, and was opened in two stages. Trial operations commenced on February 29, 2008, it became fully operational on March 26, 2008. The budget of the expansion is US$3.5 billion. Far grander in size and scale than the existing terminals, it was the largest airport terminal-building complex built in a single phase with 986,000 square meters in total floor area at its opening. It features a main passenger terminal (Terminal 3C), two satellite concourses (Terminal 3D and Terminal 3E) and five floors above ground and two underground, with the letters "A and B" omitted to avoid confusions with the existing Terminals 1 and 2. Terminal 3C is dedicated for domestic flights, Terminal 3E for international flights, and Terminal 3D, called the "Olympics Hall", was used for charter flights during the Beijing Olympics, before its use by international flights.
Beijing Railway Station
Beijing Railway Station is an important hub of the national railway transportation. It was first built in the 1950s. Shortly after the birth of New China, this station had been enlarged, in 1959 becoming the biggest passenger transport station of those days. The building was impressively grand, with a combination of rich traditional and modern styles in its architecture. It was considered as one of the ten great constructions in the capital during the 1950s. Covering an area of 25 hectares (61.8 acres), the Beijing Railway Station is located in an extremely central location, just next to Jianguomen, and is within the confines of the city's 2nd Ring Road with convenient transports-numerous public buses and trains of the Subway Line 2 pass close to this station.
The Beijing Railway Station is capable of handling over 8,000 passengers at any time. Beijing Railway Station is the top grade national station that serves many lines. Generally, trains for Northeast China (including Harbin, Shenyang and Dalian), Shandong (including Qingdao, Jinan), East China (including Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou) as well as for Inner and Outer Mongolia depart from this station. International lines (notably the railway line linking Beijing to Pyongyang of North Korea; Ulan Bator of Outer Mongolia and Moscow), also depart from this station.
Beijing West Railway Station
Covering an area of 51 hectares (126 acres), Beijing West Railway Station is the latest railway station in China as well as in Asia at present. Opened in early 1996 after three years of construction, it [was expanded in 2000 and is now able to handle 300,000 passengers per day and also had a vast amount parking lots added.
Trains departing from Beijing West leave for destinations to major cities in West China, such as Xian, Chongqing, Chengdu, Lhasa and Urumqi) as well as cities in South China, such as Wuhan, Changsha and Guangzhou. The well-known Jingjiu or Beijing-Kowloon Railway line, begins from this railway station.
Beijing South Railway Station
Beijing South Railway Station is located in the south of Beijing between the Second Ring Road and Third Ring Road. The history of this station could be traced back to 1897 in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when it was called Yongdingmen Railway Station (永定门火车站), or Majiabao Railway Station (马家堡火车站).
A large scale reconstruction started before 2008 Beijing Olympics and it was completed on August 1, 2008. Covering an area of 26,000 square meters, The new station consists of five storeys with two above ground and three underground. The second underground floor and the third underground floor are respectively connected with the stations of the Subway Line 4and the Subway Line 14, and passengers can transfer to the subway trains without going out of the railway station.
Beijing South Railway Station mainly serves for the trains of the high-speed railways, including the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway and the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and direct trains to Jinan and Qingdao. It only takes half an hour and five hours respectively traveling from Beijing to Tianjin and from Beijing to Shanghai.