Your Beijingologist is off soon to Guangzhou... which is the best excuse ever for not blogging about even the Subway. Still, this morning, 36 hours before he's airborne, the Air China site decided to — well — think twice before letting your Beijingologist check in online. Apparently, Air China's site ... Read more »

Give it all over to nearby Tianjin, who calls those lanes "Bus Zhuanyong" lanes — where the Zhuanyong moniker is a direct pinyinization from the Chinese characters "专用" (reserved lane)...

Well, the Jing will have nine more "BUS ZHUANYONG" lanes. (Heh... we love the Zhongguolish / Chinglish...) We will be seeing a ... Read more »

That's the kind of stuff that makes those souls at Zhengyi Road go what?...

Yep, the facts — and stats — are in: less than 1% of recycled water in the city of Beijing go to your car to clean the thing. That's with the price of water for non-residents ... Read more »

It's December and your Beijingologist's back in Subway Mode. Line 4 has been bringing the masses from the northwest to the South Railway Station for a fair bit now. At present, it's a boring line, interchange-wise: there are only four such interchanges.

By 2015, we're looking ... Read more »

We're missing a few — like, say, the Batong Line as well as the Fangshan and other lines slated to open next year — but this is what we have for all the numbered lines plus the Airport Express. It's pretty official, which means that you can drag your Beijingologist ... Read more »

Long story short, in story form: Someone got to sneak a look at your Beijingologist's Beijing Subway Guide (coming out either later this year or very early 2010). That "someone" was from a publishing press that wanted to get an all-Chinese language Subway book out "pretty soon".

Phone rings ... Read more »

Headliners today tell of the People's Republic of China's Social Security Card getting off to a good start today in Xicheng District. Take this card to places like Peking University, and that's all you need to get — healed (Chinglish, we know). The card looks quite a bit ... Read more »

For once, we start away from Page One Headliners. If you have less than CNY 50,000 to spend — do not buy a Tianjin Xiali car at any cost — its shakier-than-conceivable engine has a bad tendency to break down when the spirit moves it. For most expats, we're looking ... Read more »

Your Beijingologist is posting this from Ninth Heaven — the Wanbao tonight sports impressive stats about 5 new Subway lines due to open either next year or in 2011 — at least in part. Here's the lowdown:

Line 4 (Daxing) extends further south by late 2010: all signs are for a ... Read more »

Baodu Feng (爆肚冯) — that's literally Feng's exploding stomach if you do the translation word-for-word. This is your Beijingologist's last post — apparently — as Dashanlan (大栅栏), known in the Jing tongue as Dashilar, reopens with David's Exploding Stomach food store now again part of the show. Think of ... Read more »

Ever wonder how you could get your copies underground? Your Beijingologist snapped this quick shot today outside Fuxingmen station — exit C, to be precise.

One of those Wanbao-laden couriers followed your Beijingologist down to the Subway inside Fuxingmen. This post alone is your sign to nab a copy — this ... Read more »

Education sure is a good thing, but to "jail" students in the thing for what seems to be ice ages is so bad — that the Beijing edu authorities are decreeing a maximum of six hours in school for primary school students. That's right. And you've got to do ... Read more »

That's 34 more cameras over our roads around the Olympic Green. Your Beijingologist feels a bit lethargic after a massive dinner — so excuse the wording if it doesn't feel good. Anyways, if you're caught having a lethargy-inducing dinner while driving around, you're gonna be on camera ... Read more »

It's going to be such a big zheteng or total Subway Upheaval 2.0 (折騰) that we're going to have to announce this... to the public at large...

• Beginning late December 2009, .com sites for Beijingology, Tianjinology and Shanghaiology will be shut down. You may not have know ... Read more »

We're finally back. We self-imprisoned ourselves underground to make MobileMetro.mobi reality — sooner — and let more lines become reality sooner. The iPhone-optimized MobileMetro.mobi now covers all of Line 4, as well as part of Line 1 and Line 5. Follow @MobileMetro on Twitter for more news.

The headliner ... Read more »

Ah yes, then came Line 2.

Actually, believe it or not, parts of the old Line 1 are now part of Line 2. We're making reference to Changchunjie, Xuanwumen, Hepingmen, Qianmen, Chongwenmen and the Beijing Railway Station Subway stops.

Line 2 expanded later in the 1980s and became the ... Read more »

It might appear to be surreal on Line 1 right now — given how many sardines are packing themselves into the red line — but just 30 years ago, the average gap between trains on Line 1 — was 15 minutes.

And these guys used 3-car trains in military green.

That was how ... Read more »

That's right. Nobody wants to mess with the Big Sixty. Here's how all of the Jing's (now 9!) Subway lines are doing running on October 1...

Line 1 (and Batong):

Last trains on September 30 leave Pingguoyuan and Sihui at 22:00.

Services on Line 1 start ... Read more »

This thing kept us late up at night. And now it's here for good.

Skip on over to MobileMetro.mobi for the details on your iPhone. In the meantime, we've been through all major stops — including all four interchanges.

The thing that strikes us is how wide Xidan ... Read more »

If you're reading this and are in a wheelchair, feel happy! Every Line 4 stop is fully ready for you — even if you're in a wheelchair. Here's the details:

• Xizhimen and Taoranting are the only stops where stair lifts are used from the concourse to ground level ... Read more »

Oh man. For when you have to go — or face internal explosion... Say, too much Coke?

Line 4 toilets are always at platform level and always towards one end or the other of a platform. They're also often at one side of the platform.

Therefore, it's likely that ... Read more »

Those designers who designed (pardon the pun if you please) Gongyixiqiao must have really been in exit-happy mode. I mean, come on, do the maths... one, two, three, four, five, six, freakin' SEVEN EXITS. Is this supposed to be the site of some invisible southern Beijing Zoo or just what ... Read more »

Wow, hold it there, folks. It looks like that rumor that Line 4 opens tomorrow — September 25 — was just rumor propagated by what is supposedly the Jing's "newspaper of public record", the super-officialesque Beijing Daily. Mind the gap between reality and fiction: Line 4 opens September 28, 2009, and ... Read more »