The first subway line proposed in September 1953 was meant to be a wartime bunker. ... In 1981, 32 years after it was first proposed, the Beijing Metro Line 1 was finally fully in operation.

That's because Beijing subway line 2 traces nearly exactly the loop where the city's Ming dynasty city walls once stood. The history of Beijing is literally traced by line 2's underground footprint.

Hundreds of commuters, dozens of them with fractured bones, were sent to the hospital in Beijing on Thursday after two trains collided on a busy metro line during snowy conditions, the city’s ...

BEIJING: Beijing on Sunday opened a new subway line in order to reduce road traffic congestion and pollution levels ahead of the Olympics. This comes a week after Beijing announced a 33% cut in ...

Beijing now has nine subway lines in use, which stretch for 228 km. In 2015, they are expected to carry more than 10 million passengers a day with a total length of 561 km.

For our summer travel series, our Beijing correspondent rides the city's subway system and explores the history of each stop — above ground and below ground. Support for LAist comes from.