Beijing has an extensive public transportation network, including buses, subway, city rail, and taxis.
 
Subway & city rail

Subways and city rails with high speed train running at intervals of 3 to 5 are the fastest public transportation in the city. The trains are available from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. To prepare for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, more lines are put into service and even more are being constructed. The added lines not only managed to cover most part of the city and make people’s daily life convenient, but also reduced the stressing traffic condition in Beijing.


It is not only fast and convenient but also cheap. Beijing Subway fares vary on different lines. Single trip on Line Batong is 2 yuan, single trip on Line 1, Line 2 and City Rail Line 13 is 2 yuan, the transfer set ticket between Line 13 and any city line is 2 yuan, and the transfer set ticket between Line Batong and any city line is 2 yuan.


Buses

Taking bus is the cheapest means of transportation, which covers the whole city. Most of the buses are available between 6:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The starting fare of public buses is 1 yuan in the city and 2 yuan in the suburb areas.


Public Transportation Card

It is convenient to buy a Public Transportation Card which will save you a considerably large amount of transportation fees when you take a bus. There are three kinds of Transportation cards, which are normal card, student card and aged people card.

A normal card is for middle-aged people in Beijing. It charges 0.4 yuan per trip. You can obtain this kind of card from any of the supermarket with the name of Quik, where you can also have your card recharged. Or you can get it from the bus station, like the bus station in Gongzhufen, Fuxingmen, Beijing Zoo Station, ect.

A student card, as the name shows, it is a kind of cards for students studying in Beijing. Expect graduate students, it covers all the primary school pupils, middle school students and university students, ect. If you have this kind of card, you only have to spend 0.2 yuan per trip. In order to get a student card you need to prepare a certification from your school with stamps of that particular school to identify you, and one of your recent photos. What’s more, you can only obtain this kind of card from the bus station. And different from the normal card, you have to go to the place where you get your card to recharge it.

An aged people card  is for people over 60. It also charges 0.2 yuan per trip. In order to get this kind of card you need Certification of Aged People and one recent photo. You can only obtain and recharge your aged people card in the bus station too.