If you were to think of the city with the most extensive subway lines, London, New York or maybe Paris would probably come to mind. In reality, the record does not belong to any of the three and in fact, they are not even in the top 10 in the world. The record is in fact in the hands of Beijingwhose lines have the astonishing length of 909kman absolute record that the Chinese capital constantly competes with, kilometer after kilometre, with the immense network of Shanghai! To have a local point of comparison, it is equivalent to a length 8 times higher than that of Milan And over 14 times higher than that of Rome. But what is his story?
The first section of the line opened the October 1, 1969 after just over four years of work and it was a turning point: until then China had never built such an infrastructure. Again to have a comparison with a reality closer to us, consider that the first Italian subway was there Line B of Rome which opened its doors in 1955.
In the 1984 a second line came into operation. Initially it was a completely independent horseshoe-shaped route, but in 1987 was closed to form a circle of 18 stops and connected to the other, so as to allow an easier exchange of passengers.
In the following years a third line was also built, but the real turning point came in 2008: in that year the city hosted the XXIX Olympic Games. For the occasion the Government decided to enormously strengthen the metropolitan service, passing through 54 about 200km of tracks, entering a new phase of rapid expansion and network operations.
The enthusiasm for this transport system led the metropolis to develop exponentially, especially in recent years: between updates of the old lines and the construction of new ones, Beijing has managed in just over half a century to become the city with the most extensive metro network in the world, with a total length of approximately 909km.
Consider that today the subway is so central to city life that all the essential services are present inside: from supermarkets to restaurants, through currency exchange, museums and bookshops.
