Beijing Airport Express Train 12/2008 |
| Category: China - PRC | 2009-03-28 |
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| For our trip to Beijing at the end of 2008, our son Alex will arrive in Beijing a couple days later than us due to school finals. With his United Airlines flight arriving in the middle of the afternoon, I figure it would be a perfect opportunity to try the Airport Express train. |
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| The cost of the one-way trip on the Airport Express is 25 yuan, a little less than $US 4.00. |
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| We were staying at the InterContinental hotel in Beijing, and a subway station is less than five minutes away that would connect with the Airport Express. |
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| Beijing's subway is very new, and is being added to constantly. The Airport Express line is the yellow one going to the north-east corner, where Beijing International Airport is located. I will have to make one transfer at the Dongzhimen (东直门) subway station. |
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| Beijing subway is relatively crowded. I was at the station at the InterContinental at around noon, and the station is quite busy and the trains are relatively full. |
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| Today, I will be taking line two to connect with the Airport Express train, and the wait is only a few minutes. However, after getting on the subway, we had to switch trains half way because the one we were on is going into the yard. This added another few minutes to the trip, but no real harm. |
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| The Airport Express train arrives from the upper left following the powder blue track to terminal 3, then follows the dark blue track to terminal 2, and finally departs the airport following the red/brown track. |
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| The Airport Express shares the same station at the transfer point of Dongzhimen (东直门), but it was a bit of a walk, probably about five minutes. I do not recall exactly, but it seems that I had to pay the normal subway fare of two yuan, and then buy a separate 25 yuan ticket for the Airport Express Train. |
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| The Airport Express only has four stops, one at the terminus of Dongzhimen (东直门), one each at two terminals at the Beiing airport, and one more station in the suburb. The entire trip on the express train is right at around 20 minutes. |
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| The platform area at Dongzhimen (东直门) is not very large comparing to the standard subway platform, perhaps due to the lower passenger volume expected. |
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| Monitors are readily available to show train status, although I forgot to note whether displays were also in English. A train just departed minutes ago, our wait at this point was another 9 minutes. |
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| Standard seating is quite spacious with a 2x2 layout. Today, the train started out at Dongzhimen (东直门) less than half full. |
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| A crew of three controlled the train in a compartment at the head of the train. There is only a half-height partition separating passengers from the crew compartment. |
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| Soon we emerged from the tunnel to elevated tracks alongside the freeway. |
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User comments: | | 2014-02-17 04:22:17 (GMT-6) | 968435: | USA |
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