Stuff Frances Likes: The Beijing Subway

How can you not be impressed by something that came from this (such humble beginnings)

and will transform to this



in less than five years from now?

The first image shows the development of the Beijing subway, the first railway system in mainland China. Line 1 and 2 were open to the public since 1984 and remained unchanged until the construction of Line 13 in 2002.* Winning the Olympic bid for 2008, as we all know, prompted an explosion of city-wide construction, which is when the Beijing Subway got its big break. Between 2001 and 2008, seven new lines (4, 5, 8, 10, airport express and the Batong Line) were created covering Beijing's sprawl and in the next 5 years, in addition to the extension of some pre-existing lines, another 8 new lines will be created.

As we've seen with the 2008 Olympics, I think we can all agree that Beijing has the capacity in all respects to make this possible. Its also fair to say that the government is doing this for the greater good. After all, has mass transit ever been unpopular? The Beijing metro, I feel, is probably one of the more impressive feats of power that the Chinese government has implemented. Aside from the fact that they had the extra money to finance these immense projects, they were done in a short amount of time. Remember, this is one of the more populous cities China, and there are a lot of people and their homes that needed to be bought off, relocated or forced out. It is especially interesting when you think about how long it takes to approve similar type (or even less intrusive, sometimes) projects in the States. For as long as I've lived in Seattle (8 years since I left last year), the Viaduct has always been a hot topic - but the Viaduct still exists in the same physical state today. Who knows what could've happened if the government (whichever one) had taken control of the project with benevolence in mind and just did it.

I guess that's why the States are the States and China is China. And I guess having some excess money in the government wouldn't be so bad either.

*I was told by my Chinese coworker (who we like to call a real "Beijing-ren" or Beijing person) that the subway was put on hold for a long time because of the underground city )