Something to look forward to: Line 4

The rush to ready Beijing for the Olympics has brought us 3 new subway lines, but the action isn’t stopping there. The next line scheduled to “go live” is the North-South Line 4, which we’ll need to wait another year for, but when completed will link the Summer Palace, Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) the Beijing Zoo and the new Beijing South Railway Station into Beijing’s ever-expanding subway network. And Beijing’s subway builders seem to be getting smarter as well – as Line 4 will feature the shortest exchange time when entering the line from the connecting Line 1, Line 2, Line 10 and Line 13.

According to reporting in the The Beijing News, if all goes according to plan, line 4 will begin test runs in September 2009. The line will service Fengtai District (the southernmost stop), Xuanwu District, Xicheng District, and Haidian District (the northernmost stop). The entire length of the subway line is 28.18 km and it's dotted with 24 stops, 4 of which are transfer stations for lines 1 (Xidan), 2 (Xuanwu), 10 (Haidian Huangzhuang), and 13 (Xizhimen). The longest exchange time between lines is likely to be at Xidan station, but even there it's estimated that it won't be more than 5 minutes.

The new line will also connect the Beijing South Railway Station to the city's subway network, which will make life easier for people who want to take the fast train to Tianjin. Heading north from there, the line passes by Taoranting Park, Xuanwumen, Xidan, Xizhimen and up to the Beijing Zoo before heading up to the University district via Zhongguancun and finishing up at two of Beijing's most well known tourist spots Yuanmingyuan and Summer Palace (Yiheuyuan).

Links and Sources
The Beijing News: 4号线换乘最长不超5分钟
Xinhua: Map of subway system
Soufun: image of line 4
BJOE.gov.cn: second image of line 4

Comments

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very useful Rich Traffic...

Correct. This image keeps popping up, but the station names/locations were altered long after this image was made. The proper image, including speculative future stations, can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_subway

"All cynicism masks a failure to cope...to despise all effort is the greatest effort of all." - John Fowles

"Reason is treason." - Kasabian

These maps are wrong, or the one's currently in use seem to be misguiding. Tuan Jie Hu and San Yuan Qiao seem to be missing for starters! Line 4 also seems to differ from that printed on the back of subway tickets.