Beijing Subway Map 2026: Lines, Tickets & Prices

Beijing Subway Map: what tourists need to know

• Beijing had 27 operating subway lines as of June 4, 2026. The broader 30-route, 539-station and 909-km urban-rail total includes trams and other rail modes.
• Eligible UnionPay, Mastercard, Visa, JCB or American Express contactless cards work at fare gates across the Beijing Subway network without an app or advance ticket.
• First and last trains depend on the line, station and direction; the relevant station timetable provides the applicable closing time.
• PEK uses the Capital Airport Line for Terminals 2 and 3, while PKX has its own Daxing Airport Station beneath the terminal.

Current Beijing Subway service updates

Guangqumenwai on Line 17 remains temporarily closed, while Wangjingxi opened on January 31, 2026 as a three-line interchange. Official English service information is available for Lines 4-Daxing, 14, 16 and 17.

The Beijing Subway map provides an overview of a large and still-changing network. The June 2026 image is bilingual, so English-speaking visitors can match line numbers, interchange stations and airport branches before entering a station.

The Beijing Subway Map PDF is available for offline use, and its central interchange cluster can be enlarged before travel. The phrase Beijing metro map is also widely used, but the network’s English name is Beijing Subway.

Three subway expansions began trial operation on the same day, December 27, 2025: Line 17’s central section, Line 18 and the Line 6 southern extension, according to the city’s opening announcement.

The December 27, 2025 openings added 8.2 km and four stations on Line 17, 19.8 km and 11 stations on Line 18, and about 2 km with one station on the Line 6 southern extension. Guangqumenwai did not open with the Line 17 section.

A June 2026 municipal transport update reports 27 operating subway lines as of June 4, 2026.

After the December 27, 2025 openings, Beijing reported 30 operating urban-rail routes, 539 operating stations, 106 transfer stations and 909 km. This is not a subway-only count because Beijing’s urban-rail category also covers tram and other rail modes.

Operating responsibilities are shared. Beijing MTR runs Lines 4-Daxing, 14, 16 and 17 under several models. Its passenger hotline is 96123, while Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp. uses passenger hotline 96165.

Which Beijing Subway lines and transfer stations matter most?

The Beijing Subway map uses line numbers and station names to organize journeys. For visitor trips, these services and interchanges cover the most common airport, sightseeing and railway connections:

• Line 1 serves Tian’anmen East, Tian’anmen West and Wangfujing for the historic center and central shopping district.
• Lines 2 and 5 meet at Yonghegong (Lama Temple), while Dongzhimen on Lines 2 and 13 connects with the Capital Airport Line.
• Line 4 serves Xiyuan and Beigongmen for different Summer Palace gates. The Line 4-Daxing corridor is among the services operated by Beijing MTR.
• Line 5 serves Tiantandongmen for the Temple of Heaven and Beixinqiao for a connection to the Capital Airport Line.
• Lines 6 and 8 meet at Nanluoguxiang, and Line 8 also serves Olympic Sports Center for the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube area.
• Lines 8 and 15 meet at Olympic Park. The Line 15 timetable is separate from Line 8, even at the same interchange.
• Lines 10 and 12 meet the Capital Airport Line at Sanyuanqiao, while Lines 10 and 19 connect with the Daxing Airport Express at Caoqiao.
• Line 13 and the Changping Line serve Qinghe Railway Station. Xizhimen links the subway with Beijing North Railway Station.

Other useful interchange names visible across the network include Jianguomen, Fuxingmen, Ping’anli, Xi’erqi, Gongzhufen and Huoying. Route planning depends on the destination and direction because one station can have different first and last trains by direction.

Which rail systems are separate from the Beijing Subway?

Beijing Suburban Railway is a separate rail system, not another group of subway lines. This matters for a Badaling Great Wall trip, where the connection continues by high-speed or suburban train.

The Xijiao and Yizhuang T1 services are trams. Beijing BRT is a bus system. These systems are excluded from subway-only line, station and route-length totals.

The official 30-route, 539-station and 909-km headline is therefore a broader urban-rail aggregate. It must not be read as a 30-line subway-only total.

Which Beijing Subway stations serve the main sights?

For each attraction on the Beijing metro map, choose the most practical approach station. Tian’anmen Square on East Chang’an Avenue and the Forbidden City share an area but have different reservation and entrance rules and are therefore separate visits.

The Destinations table pairs each attraction with its line and approach station. Badaling and Mutianyu are included only with an explicit onward rail or bus connection because neither site has a subway station.

There is no single network-wide closing time. First and last trains vary by station, direction and short-turn destination, so the boarding station’s timetable matters more than a citywide estimate.

The official Tian’anmen East timetable shows Line 1 trains toward Universal Resort from 5:21 AM to 11:23 PM, with short-turn service toward Sihui East until 12:05 AM. Trains toward Pingguoyuan run from 5:12 AM to 11:48 PM.

At Wangfujing on Line 1, the equivalent windows are 5:23 AM to 11:25 PM toward Universal Resort, with short-turn service until 12:07 AM, and 5:10 AM to 11:46 PM toward Pingguoyuan.

At Tiantandongmen on Line 5, service toward Tiantongyuan North runs from 5:27 AM to 11:18 PM; toward Songjiazhuang it runs from 5:43 AM to 11:31 PM. Olympic Park Line 15 has different direction-specific times.

Scheduled minimum intervals also vary. Line 14 trains run every 3 minutes on the weekday morning-peak short-route section and every 6 minutes on outer sections, while some weekend off-peak sections have 8-minute intervals.

Lines 16 and 17 use 6-minute peak and 8-minute off-peak or weekend minimum intervals. Holiday and major-event schedules can extend service or temporarily change station access.

A Beijing Municipal Government notice for the May Day 2026 return peak reports later subway trains alongside night buses, shuttles, taxis and ride-hailing support, but those arrangements were event-specific rather than normal service.

After the subway closes, night bus routes serving Beijing Railway Station include Night 5, 19, 24, 28 and 29.

The Beijing Subway map distinguishes operating infrastructure from future projects. Three sections opened on December 27, 2025, and Wangjingxi Station on Line 17 opened on January 31, 2026. Guangqumenwai remains temporarily closed.

Beijing’s 2026 urban-rail construction program covers nine projects totaling 150.6 km. This is a construction program, not an addition to current operating totals.

Line 22 between Hongmiao and Pinggu is under construction and has a late-2026 opening target after an earlier 2025 target was missed. The target does not mean that the line is already open.

The Daxing Airport Express north extension to Lize is also under construction. Its latest announced target is the end of June 2027, following earlier 2025 and 2026 targets.

M101 Phase I was under construction in early 2026. Major construction on Line 19 Phase II began on February 24, and R4 Phase I North began on June 2. These projects have no announced opening year.

Line 11 Phase II remains planned rather than under construction: its integrated plan has been formally approved, but construction has not begun. R1, also called the Jingxiong Express, is a separate regional railway and was still in testing and preparation in July 2026.

Fun Fact: Beijing’s first subway grew out of a civil-defense project: its first phase was completed in October 1969, but public trial service began only on January 15, 1971, using special visit tickets.

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