Beijing is a city of ring roads and long distances, and the practical question for a visitor is not whether to use public transport but how to pay for it. The metro covers the centre densely and reaches the airport, the summer palaces and most of the sights a short stay will include. Buses fill the gaps the metro leaves, and taxis and ride-hailing apps are plentiful but slower than the train at almost any hour of the day.
Fares and payment
Metro fares are distance-based and start at a few yuan, which makes the system remarkably cheap. Single-journey tickets come from machines that accept notes and coins, but almost everyone now taps a phone or a stored-value transit card. The card is bought at any station window with a deposit and topped up in cash or by phone; the same card works on buses and on some suburban lines. Foreign bank cards are not accepted for tapping, so either buy the card, use the ticket machines, or set up a mobile payment app before you arrive and link it to the metro mini-programme.
Using the system
Every station has English signage, line diagrams and automated announcements, and the exits are lettered, so navigate by exit letter rather than by street name - some stations are the size of several city blocks underground. Bags go through a security scanner at every entrance, which adds a minute at busy stations. Trains run from around half past five in the morning until about eleven at night, more frequently than every three minutes at peak. Buses are cheaper still and useful for short hops outside the ring road, but the routes are harder to read without Chinese.
Practical notes
Avoid the morning and evening peaks if you can: between about seven and nine and again between half past five and seven in the evening, the central interchanges are genuinely crowded and some stations close certain entrances to control the flow. Taxis are metered and reasonable, but drivers rarely speak English, so have your destination written in Chinese or pinned on a map. Ride-hailing works well and shows the fare before you accept, which removes most of the guesswork for a first-time visitor.
