Beijing Subway for Foreigners: How to Ride, Pay, and Not Get Lost (2026)

On its busiest day of 2025, the Beijing Subway moved 11.15 million passengers. That is roughly the entire population of Sweden passing through one metro system in 24 hours, and Guinness World Records lists the network as the busiest on the planet. For the year it logged 3.58 billion trips, an average of about 9.8 million a day, per China Daily.

Foreigners used to dread this system. They don’t anymore. Every one of the 29 lines carries bilingual signage and English announcements, and on June 15, 2025, Beijing became the first metro in the world to accept all five major card brands at turnstiles across its full network: UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, JCB, and American Express (per the Beijing Municipal Government; verify current coverage at english.beijing.gov.cn as of 2026-08). Tap your card, the gate opens. No app, no queue, no Chinese bank account.

This guide covers payment, fares, navigation, and the friction points that still trip people up, with the numbers checked against official sources.

What changed in 2025 (and why old guides are wrong)

If you read a guide written before mid-2025, half of its payment advice is stale. Contactless Visa and Mastercard tap-to-ride arrived in late 2024, then JCB and American Express joined on June 15, 2025. People’s Daily Online reported it as the first full-network, five-brand contactless rollout for any metro worldwide.

The network itself keeps growing too. Three new lines opened in December 2024, pushing the system to 879 km (State Council of China), and it reached 909 km by the end of 2025 (China Daily). Beijing plans to add another 40-plus km in 2026, per the municipal government’s January 2026 announcement. Stations opened recently may not appear in older offline maps, so refresh yours after you land.

How to pay

Five realistic options exist. The table sorts them by how much effort each takes for a foreign visitor:

Tap your foreign card (the new default)

Since June 15, 2025, Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, and UnionPay contactless cards work at gates network-wide, as do phones and watches carrying those cards in Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay. You are charged the standard distance-based fare after you tap out. Treat it like the Tube in London: same card or device in, same card or device out.

One open question as of 2026-08: travelers report mixed results tapping foreign cards on the two airport express lines, which run their own flat-fare gates. For airport runs, buy a ticket or use Yikatong until the operator confirms otherwise.

Alipay or WeChat metro QR code

The subway does not scan Alipay’s normal payment code. You activate a separate transit code:

1. In Alipay, open Transport, choose Metro, and set the city to Beijing
2. Activate the Beijing Subway QR code (北京地铁乘车码), which links to your Alipay balance or a foreign Visa/Mastercard
3. Scan at the gate on entry and again on exit

WeChat has an equivalent mini-program code under Me, Services, Transport. Both bill by distance. The Alipay route is the better documented one for passport holders, since Alipay completed foreign-card support citywide in 2024.

Yikatong (一卡通)

The stored-value card costs a ¥20 deposit plus whatever you load, sold at station service windows (cash is the safe bet for the first purchase). It works on the subway, buses, and even some taxis, and it is the one standard payment method that definitely works on both airport lines.

Frequent riders get a monthly cumulative discount of up to 50 percent on subway fares once monthly spending passes set thresholds. Check the current tiers on the official fare page as of 2026-08. A digital Yikatong also exists in Apple Wallet, but topping it up traditionally requires a China UnionPay card, which most tourists don’t have. Tap-to-ride with a foreign card has made that workaround mostly pointless for short visits.

Single-journey tickets

Vending machines sell round plastic tokens per ride, and most now take Alipay or WeChat Pay. Pick your destination line on the touchscreen, pay, tap the token to enter, and drop it into the slot at your exit gate. Fine for one ride. Tedious for five.

What a ride costs

Standard lines use distance bands (not the airport lines):

| Distance | Fare | |----------|------| | 0-6 km | ¥3 | | 6-12 km | ¥4 | | 12-22 km | ¥5 | | 22-32 km | ¥6 | | 32-52 km | ¥7 | | 52-72 km | ¥8 | | 72+ km | +¥1 per extra 20 km |

Most tourist hops across the central city land at ¥4 or ¥5. Verify the current bands on the official fare table as of 2026-08. Two rules catch people out:

• 4-hour limit. Stay inside the paid area longer than four hours on a single journey and the gate adds a small surcharge (the minimum fare, ¥3) when you leave.
• Airport lines are separate. The Capital Airport Express charges a flat ¥25. The Daxing Airport Express charges ¥10, ¥25, or ¥35 by segment, with the full Caoqiao-to-airport run at ¥35 and taking about 19 minutes.

Your first ride, step by step

Getting around in English

Station names appear in Chinese characters and pinyin, line numbers are color-coded (Line 1 red, Line 2 blue, Line 5 purple, Line 10 light blue), and transfer corridors mark connecting lines in both languages. Trains announce stops in English. The one genuinely confusing bit: exit letters. A station can have eight exits spread over several blocks, and Exit A may put you on the wrong side of a six-lane road. Check the exit number against your map before you climb the stairs.

| App | Best for | Notes | |-----|----------|-------| | Apple Maps | Turn-by-turn subway routing | Works in English, shows exit numbers | | Beijing Subway (official) | Fares and first/last train times | English interface, from bjsubway.com | | MetroMan China | Quick offline route lookup | Lightweight, good backup | | Baidu or Gaode Maps | Walking-plus-subway combos | Chinese interface, but handles English POI names |

Google Maps is unreliable in China and useless underground. Download an offline Beijing map before you fly, because signal drops on some older tunnel sections.

The lines tourists ride most:

• Line 1 (red, east-west under Chang’an Avenue): Tiananmen, Wangfujing, the CBD at Guomao
• Line 2 (blue loop around the old city): Dongzhimen, Qianmen, Beijing Railway Station
• Line 4 (teal, north-south west side): Beijing South Railway Station, Yuanmingyuan, Xiyuan for the Summer Palace
• Line 5 (purple, north-south east side): Temple of Heaven East Gate (Tiantandongmen), the Olympic area
• Line 8: Guloudajie (Drum Tower), Nanluoguxiang, Olympic Green
• Line 10 (light blue outer loop): the workhorse interchange ring, and Caoqiao for Daxing trains
• Capital Airport Express: Beixinqiao and Dongzhimen to PEK Terminals 2 and 3, flat ¥25
• Daxing Airport Express: Caoqiao to PKX in about 19 minutes, ¥35 full fare

Stations tourists actually use

| Station | Lines | Nearby | |---------|-------|--------| | Tiananmen East / West | 1 | Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City (east and west gates) | | Qianmen | 2, 8 | Dashilan, southern Tiananmen, walk to Temple of Heaven | | Wangfujing | 1, 8 | Shopping street, food lanes | | Beixinqiao | 5, Capital Airport Express | Yonghe Temple, hutongs, direct airport trains | | Guloudajie | 2, 8 | Drum Tower, Bell Tower, Houhai lakes | | Tiantandongmen | 5 | Temple of Heaven east gate | | Xiyuan | 4 | Summer Palace (10-15 min walk) | | Olympic Green | 8, 15 | Bird’s Nest, Water Cube | | Beijing South Railway Station | 4, 14 | High-speed trains to Tianjin, Shanghai |

Practical tips

• Skip rush hours if you can. Lines 1, 5, and 10 get genuinely packed between 7:30-9:00 and 17:30-19:00. Line 10 alone has topped 1.34 million daily trips, per municipal data.
• Watch the last train. Terminal departures typically fall between 22:30 and 23:30 depending on the line. Missing it means a ¥150-plus taxi. The Beijing Subway app lists first and last train times per station.
• Airport trains are a separate fare system. Budget ¥25 flat for PEK and up to ¥35 for PKX. Don’t assume your entry QR code carries over. It doesn’t.
• No eating or drinking on trains. The ban is enforced and can carry a fine. Water is fine if you keep it in your bag.
• Carry toilet paper. Most stations have restrooms inside the paid area, often near the platform ends, but supplies vary.
• Elevators exist at newer stations. Line 1 and Line 2 stations date from the 1970s and 1980s, and their elevator coverage is patchy. If you have heavy luggage or a wheelchair, check your specific station first.
• Priority seats at the car ends are for elderly, disabled, pregnant passengers, and families with small children. Give them up.