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 There are
several hundreds of public bus routes in Beijing. They have for
long period of time played an
important role in ordinary people's daily life. However, as a
tourist, you may want to avoid taking public buses during the rush hours, as
the traffic could be terrible. Generally speaking, buses with
route number ranging between 1 and 122 operate in the downtown area,
those ranging 300 and 949 have extended operations to the outskirts of Beijing.
Any routes that begin with 8 are air-conditioned. Other numbers
may indicate
double-decker, special tour lines, night buses, and so on. Some
buses do not have conductors on board, so passengers have to pay
for the ride through a automated toll machined installed in the
area next to the driver. It is important to have the exact amount
ready as the machines do not give out changes. Taking the bus in
Beijing is very inexpensive.
Pricing Information
In general, for downtown routes, the ticket will cost you one yuan
flat, and two yuan for the ones equipped with air conditioner.
The ticket price for buses with air conditioning is CNY2. Other
fee schedule is as following:
Bus No.1 through No.200: 1 yuan
Bus No.201 through No.212 (night routes): 2 yuan
Bus No.300 through No.599: 1 yuan to start, 0.5 yuan added for
each additional 5 kilometers.
Bus Routes starting with 'Te': 2 yuan
If you plan to use city bus as the main transportation means, you
may want to consider purchasing a type of discounted special smart
card for tourists, which will eliminate the process of buying the
ticket every time and at the same time, save you some money.
City Bus Routes
Here are some public bus routes that have stops nearing major
attractions in Beijing.
|
Attractions |
Bus Route |
|
Tiananmen Square |
1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20, 22, 37, 52, 59, 120, 126, 728, 802 |
|
Beijing Railway Station |
9, 10, 20, 24, 25, 39, 52, 59, 122, Night203, Night204, Night208,
Night209, Night211, 403, 420, 434, 457,637, 638, 639, 640, 668,
673, 674, 729, 744, 938, 957 |
|
Beijing West Railway Station |
9, 21, 40, 47, 50, 52, 54, 65, 67, Night205, Night209, Night212,
301, 319, 320, 373, 374, 387, 437, 609, 616, 661, 662, 663, 673,
702, 727, 741, 802, 823, 937Branch |
|
Summer Palace |
Night209, 330, 331, 332, 346, 394, 718, 726, 732, 737, 801, 808,
817, 826 |
|
Forbidden City |
Trolley101, Trolley 103, Trolley 109, Trolley 124, Night202,
Night211, 685, 810, 814, 846 |
|
Shichahai |
5, Trolley101, Trolley 103, Trolley 109, Trolley 124, Night202,
Night211, 685, 814, 846 (get off at Beihai Stop) |
|
Temple of Heaven |
17, 35, 120, Night203, 729, 803 |
|
Liulichang Cultural Street |
7, 14, 15, 66, 70 |
Designated Tourist Bus Routes
Public Buses starting with '9' are specially used for tourism. The
charge is different according to the distance.
|
Bus Route |
Departure Location |
Attractions Along the Route |
|
918 |
Dongzhimen Long-Distance Bus Station |
Jinhai Lake |
|
919 (air-con) |
Deshengmen |
Badaling Great Wall, Weihe Drift, Hot Spring Resort |
|
919 Branch |
Deshengmen |
Kangxi Grassland |
|
919 (com) |
Deshengmen |
Badaling Great Wall, Badaling Wild Animal Zoo, Juyongguan Pass,
Longqing Gorge |
|
937 Branch |
Lishi Lu |
Xingming Lake Resort |
|
931 |
Pingguoyuan |
Jietaisi
Temple, Tanzhesi Temple |
|
929 Branch |
Pingguoyuan |
Lingshan Mountain, Chuan Di Xia Village |
|
920 (circle route) |
Yanqing |
Longqing Gorge, Badaling Hot Spring Resort |
|
938 |
Beijing Railway Station |
No.1 City under the Heaven |
|
948 |
Pingguoyuan |
Jietaisi
Temple, Tanzhesi Temple |
|
945 |
Shunyi |
Longmai Hot Spring |
|
985 |
Sihui |
Longmai Hot Spring |
|
917 Branch1 |
Tianqiao |
Hancun River |
|
917 Branch2 |
Tianqiao |
Shidu |
It should be pointed out that Beijing is a culture and education
center of China and has enormous number of
universities. Bus routes 331 and 375 will take you to
many China's most famous universities, including Beijing University of
Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing Normal University, Beijing
Film Academy, China University of Political Science and Law,
Beijing Aero Science University, Peking University's Medical
School, China
University of Petroleum, China University of Geosciences, Beijing
Language and Culture University, University of Science and
Technology Beijing, Peking University, Tsinghua University and
Peking University's School of International Studies.
Bus
route 323, from Beijing Zoo to the Summer Palace, also passes by
many universities and research institutions, such as Central
University for Nationalities, Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing
Institute of Technology, Renmin University of China, Peking
University, National Library and Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Tips for taking buses in Beijing
1. IC card can only be used for one person each time.
2. Some of the bus routes are charged according to the distance,
passengers should use the card twice both when getting on and off
the bus. For detailed information, please visit the official website of Beijing City-bus at
http://www.bjbus.com/english/.
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