The 'purple line' connecting the north to the south

Beijing began building its first subway -- Beijing Subway Line 1 -- on July 1, 1965. Construction of the 23.6-km subway line completed on October 1, 1969 – long before Singapore, Seoul, Washington, D.C. or others cities' even had one inch of a metro system built.

Line 2 of Beijing Subway began operating in September 1984. And from 2002 to 2003, Beijing Subway Line 13 and Batong Line became available, helping to ease the commute for Beijing residents.

Building a robust subway system has become an important goal in order to ease the increasing traffic congestion on the roads of Beijing.

On December 28, 2002, the construction of Line 5 officially began. By the end of this year, the simultaneous construction of eight subways lines will begin, including Line 4, Line 10, and the airport line.

With the exception of Line 4, which will open to the public in 2009, the other subway lines are scheduled to be ready for passengers in 2008 in time for the Olympic Games.

By 2015, when the city's central public rail transportation network is scheduled to be complete, residents within Beijing's 3rd Ring will be able to access a subway station within one kilometer of walking.

An estimated 45% of the Beijing population will rely on public transportation (from 30% now), and the public transport railways will handle eight million commuters a day, or 50 percent of the commuter population (from two million commuters now).