Beijing has made headway in building a comprehensive transport system during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), which has helped improve urban management and cross-regional coordinated development.

In the past five years, the city started the construction of nine urban rail sections. Eleven sections totaling 160.6 kilometers have come into service, according to Zhao Hong, a senior official of the Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office.

By the end of 2020, the length of Beijing's urban rail transit network reached 727 km, ranking second among China's cities.

The capital has built an extensive rail network consisting of 23 lines that cover 13 of the city's 16 districts, said Zhao Hong, a senior official of the Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office

The capital has built an extensive rail network consisting of 23 lines that cover 13 of the city's 16 districts, Zhao said. "Rail transit has become a main form of urban public transportation."

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According to data from the Ministry of Transport, Beijing ranks third in annual passenger volume for urban rail transit, with 229 million passenger trips completed last year.

Zhao added that a series of advanced technologies have been used in the rail lines' construction.

The Yanfang Line, which started operation in 2017, is China's first domestically developed driverless subway. Meanwhile, the Daxing Airport Line with a maximum speed of 160 km per hour is the fastest metro route in the country.

All rail stations are equipped with mobile payment systems and QR code check-in gates to ease congestion and offer convenience to passengers, said Rong Jun, deputy director of the Beijing Commission of Transport.

The urban bus system has also been improved over the past five years.

Authorities have optimized the bus route network, reducing overlapping routes by 2,078 km and adding bus services to 430 km of roads.

Passengers are offered real-time information of nearly all bus routes, including distance, arrival time and how busy they are. "This allows commuters to plan their trip more efficiently," Rong said.

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The city's expressway network continued to expand with eight, including those linking the capital and Hebei province, opened. By the end of last year, Beijing registered a total expressway mileage of more than 1,170 km.

The local government has launched six rail projects in the past five years. One was the Beijing-Xiong'an intercity railway, which began operation in December 2020.The high-speed rail line cut the journey time from Beijing West Railway Station to the Xiong'an New Area in Hebei province to 50 minutes.

A one-hour traffic circle in the core area of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and a 1.5-hour traffic circle among neighboring cities have basically been formed, which will provide support for the integrated development of the region, Rong said.

For the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), Beijing will build a large-scale transport hub in its subcity center of Tongzhou district.

The hub will connect three railways and three subways. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, according to the city government.