Riding Buses in Beijing

Matt’s mom and younger brothers love to take a day and do “bus day.” They pick a route, ride it to the end in one direction, get off, and explore the area until they find lunch. Then they get back on the bus going the opposite direction and ride it to the other end, explore there, then finally take it back to the bus stop they started from. They’ve found several fun places doing this, sometimes ending up quite far from where they started. Also, when you get on a bus at the beginning of it’s route, you’re pretty much guaranteed a seat, making the rest of the trip quite enjoyable; sit back and watch Beijing pass by.

To become familiar with the Beijing bus system, you’ll need to ride some buses. Let’s start with some of the basics of doing buses, then.

The key to riding public transportation in Beijing is a bus/subway card, which you can get at most subway stations. These cards are re-loadable and allow you to swipe in and out on the bus or subway, even giving you discounted rates on buses. They cost money to buy (20 kuai currently), but you can technically get the deposit back if you return the card to one of a few rare places that offer refunds. Even if you never do that (and I wouldn’t blame you because it’s a huge hassle), the card is worth the cost.

Once you own a card, you can ride the bus without telling an attendant where you’re going, which is helpful when you’re exploring an unknown bus route or simply don’t know the name of the stop that you’ll recognize upon arriving. One thing to remember with the card: always swipe out if there’s a swipe machine at the exit of the bus. If you don’t, you’ll be charged the maximum ticket price for the bus, which can be 10 kuai in some cases. Entrances will be in the front on two-door buses and in the middle on three-door buses.

To start getting an idea of buses which may go to helpful and/or fun places, make use of your camera. Take a picture of the signs at the bus stop(s) closest to your home, and take pictures of bus stops near the places you go or want to go. (You’ll need to get there a different way once, but from then on you may very well be able to take a bus.) You can also write down the bus numbers; it just takes longer, and sometimes bus numbers will have characters next to them (and you’ll definitely want to note those).

Once you’ve got a small inventory of bus numbers, see if any of the numbers match up. If they do, you’ve most likely found a route to your destination. One important note: Not all bus routes stop at the same places going both directions, so it’s not automatic that a bus will bring you to the exact same street on the way back on the route.

This is the part where you get to be adventurous; it’s time to try riding a bus to a place and see if you make it. Once you’ve done that, look for the bus stop across the street and try riding the same bus home. If it’s a shorter bus route, you may just want to ride the whole thing sometime to see where it goes. Take pictures or notes as you do that, and you’ll have an inventory of the places accessible to you just from one bus ride. If at any time the bus feels like it’s going a weird direction or you hit the point of being done with China/buses/people, hop off and grab a cab home. By now you’ve surely hidden a secret hundred somewhere, right?

Have you ever found a great new thing while riding a bus? What buses do you find most helpful?

Related posts:

1. Riding the Bus in Beijing (and Singapore)
2. How Expats Survive in Beijing
3. 20 Ways to Have Fun in Beijing

Tagged as: beijing, buses, public transportation, swipe card, Travel