HansHuckebein

Is the ticket from the airport express also valid for subway or do I need a separate ticket?

Are the ticket machines "self-explanatory"?

qpr

The ticket is not valid for the subway.

When you arrive in Beijing, you have to leave the airport express area and have to enter the subway with a seperate ticket.

JPDM

Are you sure that this wasn't changed? I am asking because I did not take it since the fare revision. The subway app that I use is showing 25RMB for any location to the airport while before it was showing 27RMB. Just wondering if, with the new distance-based fare, they do not have a total price. If not then the app is wrong.

To the OP: Go to youtube for videos on how to use the subway and buy tickets. Very easy as you'll see.

sinoflyer

The Airport Express and the rest of the Beijing subway system are still separate. That means that, on arrival in Dongzhimen (I'm presuming you are not doing this at Sanyuanqiao, which I have never been to), you must exit and re-enter the subway system by buying another ticket.

That said, I believe the reloadable fare card, which can be used on all subways and local buses, can also be used on the Airport Express. The integrated 25RMB fare might be the result of that.

HOWEVER, I don't know whether the ticket booths at PEK (T3 and T1/2) sell that farecard. It's technically free, but requires a 20RMB deposit (iirc) plus whatever amount you want to load onto the card initially. If they don't sell that farecard at PEK (and it's available at only certain busy stations inside the city, not all of them), then the farecard idea is completely useless. You wouldn't be able to get your deposit back, which means you don't save $ but pay 20RMB extra.

JPDM

Yes, the card works for the Airport Express as well.

Hoyaheel

I just returned from Beijing and find the ticket machines quite easy to use. There is a button to select English, then look at the map and/or select the line you plan to use and the station you want and the fare will be calculated and displayed. I didn't YouTube in advance but I did try to note the different subway stops I would need.

Most frustrating to me is some stations have local area maps with English translations but others do not. I like those to figure out which exit to use and how to turn when i exit. (I love subways but they can disorient me upon exiting) Ah well. I mostly got around OK and I never lost my coworker ;-)

milepig

This must be a trivia question, sinceI can't find the answer via googling.

I'm very familiar with the ticket machine process where you select your destination to calculate the fare,

On our next trip it looks we'll only use the subway once for a single event, 2 of us so we'll need four tickets total.

Is the ticket actually good only to the destination you entered into the machine to calculate the fare, or it is just based on the distance between the two stations.

I'd rather just buy four cards all at once and get it over with - using two for the outbound and two for the return.

I know about the pass, but it isn't worth it for just this one journey.

milepig

Three years too late for you, but I just discovered that Google Maps labels the exits (usually A/B/C/D). You need to zoom in a fair to get them to display, but you'll see a big exit symbol, surrounded by four smaller ones each labeled with a letter.

Here's an example A and B are obscured by the box, but you can see C and D below the main exit symbol.

Hoyaheel

Well, I didn't have a working smartphone with me on my China trips, either, (and we had a lot of problems with google on wifi - even when we could access it because we used VPNs, the maps were off about 30 ft, consistently.....) But good to know that google is helpful!

cxfan1960

When it was a flat ￥2 for all trips on subway, I bought two - one for my return. The machine didn't accept my return. As it turned out, while it was always ￥2, I could only enter from the station purchased!! I am not sure if that was changed.

JPDM

No, you need to buy from the departing station.

milepig

sinoflyer

Subway fares are sort of based on linear zones from your originating station. As long as your card has an adequate fare, it will let you exit any station without your inputting the exact destination. The ticket kiosk gives you the option to directly select the RMB amount to purchase.

milepig

This seems to contradict the information above, unless your talking about adding value to a transit card. I was asking about when just buying a ticket and not using a stored value card.

Are you saying that on this screen:



you can bypass the select a line part and just click "2 tickets for 6 Yuan" and the balance will remain on your tickets after the first use?

sinoflyer

Yes and no. IIRC, when you open up the self-service kiosk, you will be presented an interface with the system map in the middle and the different subway lines on top. On the left are the quantities desired, and on the right are the fare amounts. If you already know the fare, you can directly punch 2 on the left and 3 RMB on the right, and deposit 6 RMB to receive two oneway tickets of 3 RMB each.

The kiosk gives change, but your single-use ticket will not be returned upon exit. That means that if you purchased a 4 RMB ticket but the journey only costs 3 RMB, you will not have the ticket returned to you with 1 RMB remaining on it.


(pulled this photo off the internet)