Published on : 01/10/2024
On October 1, 1969, the first phase of the Beijing Subway was basically completed.
The first phase of the Beijing Subway was the earliest subway line in New China. As early as the 1950s, Beijing started planning subway construction.
Newly established People's Republic of China (PRC) had a population of less than 3 million in their capital, Beijing, with only over 5,000 vehicles. People mostly walked or rode rickshaws, and public buses were few.
On February 4, 1965, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) issued an instruction on the construction plan of Beijing Subway, establishing the construction principle of the Beijing Subway as "adapting to military needs, while taking into account urban transportation".
The first phase of the Beijing Subway officially started construction on July 1, 1965, and was completed in a low-key manner four years later.
However, the trial operation of the first phase of the Beijing Subway did not start until 1971. At this time, the first phase of the Beijing Subway was still not open to the public, and the public could only visit and ride with a recommendation letter from their workplace.
It wasn't until 1981, when the Beijing Municipal Subway Company (北京市地下鐵道公司) was established, that the first phase of the Beijing subway finally officially opened to the public.
It operates from Beijing Station to the western suburb Apple Orchard (蘋果園), a total length of 23.6 kilometres, with 17 stations set up. The single journey ticket price was set at 0.1 CNY.
In this year, the annual passenger volume of the Beijing Subway reached as high as 64.66 million, with a daily passenger volume of 177,000.
