Beijing: Getting there & around

Orientation

Beijing is located in the northeastern corner of China. Its city limits extend some 80km (50mi), including the urban and the suburban areas and the nine counties under its administration - in other words, it's huge. Though it may not appear so in the shambles of arrival, Beijing is a place of very orderly design. Long, straight boulevards and avenues are crisscrossed by a network of lanes. Places of interest are either very easy to find if they're on the avenues, or impossible to find if they're buried down the hutongs (narrow alleys).

The Forbidden City acts like a bull's-eye, surrounded by a network of roads, including five ring roads which cup the city centre in concentric circles. The First Ring Rd is a mapmaker's fiction and just part of the grid around the Forbidden City. However, the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth (opened in 2002) are multi-lane freeways. Roughly within the Second Ring Rd are the four central districts: Xicheng, Dongcheng, Chongwen and Xuanwu. Outside the Second Ring Rd are the so-called 'suburban' (now urbanised) districts of Chaoyang (east), Fengtai (southwest) and Haidian (northwest). Then there are the 'villages' ( li ). Beijing was once surrounded by many tiny villages, though over time these have in fact become neighbourhoods within the megalopolis.

Getting There

• train

  International trains to Moscow, Pyongyang and Ulaan Baatar arrive at and leave from Beijing Train Station; trains for Hong Kong and Vietnam leave from Beijing West Train Station.

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Getting Around

• bus

  If you simply must catch a bus around town, sharpen your elbows, chain your wallet to your underwear and muster all the patience you can - you'll need it. There are about 140 bus and trolley routes, which makes navigation rather confusing, especially if you can't see out the window.

• taxi

  If you don't speak Chinese, bring a map or have your destination written down in Chinese characters. Telephone bookings are possible.

• bicycle

  Hotels - especially budget hotels - often rent out bikes at reasonable rates, or there are the numerous bike-hire outfits in the streets around hotels and tourist spots.

• underground rail

  The Underground Dragon can move at up to 70km (43mi) per hour - a jaguar compared to the lumbering buses. But while it's clean and easy to use, the trains are starting to show their age.

• Disabled Travellers

  If you are wheelchair-bound or you have a walking disability, Beijing will be a major obstacle course. Pavements are often crowded and are in an appalling and dangerous condition. High curbs prevent wheelchair access. Many streets can be crossed only via an underground or overhead walkway with many steps. You will also have to stick to the main roads, as cars and bicycles often occupy the pavements of smaller alleys and lanes, forcing pavement users on to the road. Those with sight, hearing or walking disabilities must be extremely cautious of the traffic, which almost never yields to pedestrians. Most, but not all, hotels have lifts, and several top-end hotels have rooms for those with disabilities, but there are no lifts in the subway where escalators usually only go up.

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