public transport, again
Posted by wangbo in beijing public transport, news on October 8, 2008
The carrot to match the stick of higher parking prices in the central city (and parking prices will be set at different rates in different areas) is the construction next year of five comprehensive transport hubs. 新京报/The Beijing News’ Li Liqiang reports:
5综合交通枢纽明年开建
Five comprehensive transport hubs to begin construction next year
13个大型交通枢纽2010年全部建成；一亩园公交枢纽已完成过半
13 large-scale transport hubs to be built by 2010; Yimuyuan Public Transport hub already more than half finished
一亩园公交枢纽已完成过半，预计明年建设完成。记者昨日从北京市公联公司获悉，目前，本市还有5个交通枢纽正在进行前期准备，预计明年开建。到2010年，将规划建设成13个综合交通枢纽。
Yimuyuan Public Transport Hub is already more than half finished and construction is expected to be completed next year. Yesterday this reporter learned from Beijing City Gonglian Company that at present this city still has five public transport hubs undergoing the early stages of preparation, and it is expected they will begin construction next year. 13 comprehensive transport hubs are planned to have been built by 2010.
一亩园枢纽与4号线相连
Yimuyuan hub will connect with Line 4
一亩园枢纽是“十一五”期间本市重点建设的5项大型综合交通枢纽之一，也是公联公司成立后启动建设的第一个综合交通枢纽。据公联公司负责人介绍，一亩园枢纽建成后，将成为服务北京西北部地区公共交通换乘的现代化大型综合枢纽。
The Yimuyuan hub is one of the 5 large-scale comprehensive transport hubs in this city’s key construction projects of the 11th Five-Year Plan, and is also the first comprehensive transport hub that the Gonglian company has begun construction on since its founding. According to the person responsible at the Gonglian company, when the Yimuyuan hub is built, it will become a modernised large-scale comprehensive transport hub serving the northwestern regions of Beijing.
该枢纽总建筑面积1.8万平方米，建筑高度11.5米，其中地上两层，地下一层，可满足10万人次的换乘需求。地 面一层设计为公交换乘大厅和站台，采取半岛式换乘形式，公交换乘大厅与站台直接相连，设有到、发车位25个，可容纳20条公交线路车辆和约7000人同时 到发。地下一层安排了与地铁4号线的换乘通道，并设有公共车库，可停放机动车50辆、自行车1500辆。
The total construction area of this hub is 180 thousand square metres, the height of the construction will be 11.5 metres, with two storeys above ground and one under ground, and it will be capable of handling the interchange needs of 100 thousand person-times. The ground floor will be built as a bus interchange hall and platform, adopting the peninsula-style interchange mode. The interchange hall and platform will be directly linked and will have 25 spaces for arriving and departing vehicles. It will be capable of holding the vehicles of 20 bus routes and handling the simultaneous arrivals and departures of 7000 people. The basement level has been arranged to hold an interchange with subway Line 4 and will contain a public carpark capable of holding 50 motor vehicles and 1500 bicycles.
截至目前,一亩园枢纽总体工程完成约55%。此外，东直门交通枢纽、北京南站枢纽后续设施也在继续建设中。
At present, 55% of the overall Yimuyuan hub project is complete. Also, the follow-up installations at the Dongzhimen Transport Hub and Beijing South Station hub are still under construction.
据介绍，北京各类交通枢纽规划建设33处，其中大型综合换乘交通枢纽13处。
It is reported that Beijing will build 33 transport hubs of every kind, of which 13 will be large-scale comprehensive transport hubs.
P＋R模式天通苑北站首用
P + R model to be first used at Tiantongyuan North Station
市民驾车换乘地铁，使用公交IC卡享受一次2元的停车费优惠政策。2007年，这种“P+R”的换乘方式在我国首次开始应用。对此，公 联公司负责人介绍，天通苑北站P+R停车场运营以来，现在每个工作日泊位使用率均超100%。今年，天通苑北站P+R停车场完善后，车位达436个。此 外，拥有140个车位的通州北苑站P+R停车场也投入使用。
Citizens who change from their cars to the subway will enjoy the preferential policy 2 yuan per time parking fee when they use their public transport IC card. This P + R interchange method first came into use in China in 2007. Regarding this, the person responsible at the Gonglian company said that since the P + R carpark came into operation at Tiantongyuan North Station, the usage rate of each space had on average exceeded 100% on every work day. When the P + R carpark at Tiantongyuan North Station is completed this year, it will have 436 parking spaces. Also, the 140-space P + R carpark at Tongzhou Beiyuan Station has come into service.
This is followed up with a related article by the same author on the start of construction on the South Station’s North Plaza and return to work on 24 city streets. It’s all a bit technical for me, but of the 24 roadworks projects, only 10 are within the Fourth Ring Road. There is a list of those ten projects after the article, and they are:
- The road network around Beijing South Station;
- Futong Dong Dajie;
- Guangqu Lu;
- Nanmalian Dao;
- Chengshousi Lu;
- Second phase of Beitucheng Dong Lu;
- Gaoliangqiao Lu [Sorghum Bridge Street, what a cool name];
- Majiabao Dong Lu;
- Xicui Lu;
- The roads outside the Dongzhimen Transport Hub.
It doesn’t say what the 14 roadworks projects outside the Fourth Ring are.
许魏
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing, random, ranting on October 7, 2008
I hope I’ve got the right characters in the title…. must be, they worked in a Baidu search. lzh just told me Xu Wei’s songs all sound the same. That may be true, but I like his style. Just thought I’d say that.
Cos I don’t have much else to say right now. Work is good, and terrible. Tests, you see, which make for an easy classtime, and hell marking. Especially when one glance at the papers as they’re handed in tells you you’re going to have to give the kids a good rark up next week. Yep, I think my Monday is going to provide Golden Throat all the annual revenue they’re going to need.
Yeah, my second years are going to get a pretty harsh wake-up call.
My first years, though- -so far, at least- -are doing things exactly perfectly, and that is good. I’m hoping the rest of this week’s first year testing continues the way it started.
But listening to Xu Wei puts me back in the mood I generally prefer. Xu Wei is good.
back
Posted by wangbo in beijing public transport, ranting on October 3, 2008
Back in the city, dammit.
And I’m in the mood for a little rant. Sorry.
See, although I’m generally pretty happy with the performance of the Bafangda bus company, particularly that section of it that runs the 919s to Badaling and Yanqing, there’s one really big, glaring problem: Transport within Yanqing County.
Cos most of the bus routes within Yanqing County are also run by Bafangda- at least, so far as I have seen.
It used to be simple: Ride the 919 right to the end of the line at Yanqing Bus Station, find the next 920 to be heading out to the village, and wait for that to leave (they run every half hour). then the 920 route was changed, meaning we had to get off at Dongguan or Nancaiyuan to change to the 920- Nancaiyuan if you want a hope of getting a seat, Dongguan if you have business in the county town to be done before heading out to the village. That’s no big deal, just get off the bus earlier. That’s the way it is today, and we normally change buses at Nancaiyuan.
And of course, at Nancaiyuan there are plenty of 黑车 (hēichē- literally “black cars”, i.e. illegal taxis) for hire should you not want to risk being crushed to a bloody pulp on the 920. At Dongguan there are the same heiche and also 班车 (bānchē- tricycles with a flat bed covered in blankets you can pile your stuff and your people on, the most common and useful form of transport within the county town, works taxi-style, but for a fraction of the cost, provided you don’t mind being pedalled around by some old guy who looks like he should be considering retirement).
So getting out to the village has never been much hassle. Getting back is getting to be more and more troublesome.
It used to be that there were plenty of 面的 (miàndì- those tiny vans, y’know, van-shaped but no bigger than a VW Jetta- and that’s the bigger ones) plying the highway. They could be hired as a taxi, but they would also often cruise the highway picking up passengers bus-style. Considering the 920s run every half hour, we would more often than not catch a miandi to head back into the county town- and whether you hire it taxi-style or get a seat in one plying the bus route, you tell the driver your destination in the county town and you’ll get dropped right there. Far more convenient than the bus, if you don’t mind the lack of space and safety. But as time has worn on there’ve been fewer and fewer miandi on the roads.
Well, I don’t know, I haven’t actually been into the county town proper for ages. We’ve been getting off at Nancaiyuan, on the southern outskirts- indeed, on the other side of the Gui River from the town proper- almost every time. So far as I can remember, the last time I was in the county town proper- apart from the banche ride from the nearest 920 stop to the bus station on the way back into Beijing, of course- was Spring Festival. There still seemed to be enough miandi around, but not as many as back in their heyday. It used to be that along the northern side of the square at Dongguan were a crowd of miandi waiting for passengers heading in the Kangzhuang direction, then further up the road around the old Central Market were those heading our direction, and you could hardly step outside anywhere between Dongguan, the bus station and Central Market without constant offers of miandi rides. Yeah, I’m not sure what the situation is in that area these days, but the bus station area seems a lot quieter. Still heiche drivers there offering rides into Beijing, though- yeah, like they can compete with the buses.
Then on our way out to the village, on seeing the crowds waiting for our bus at the first stop out of the station, we allowed ourselves to be talked into hiring a heiche. A Chery QQ as it happens, a car I have a particular thoroughly irrational loathing for. I mean, it’s a good car and a great design for inner city motoring, it was certainly spacious and comfortable inside and every aspect of the vehicle I could see and sense displayed the decent quality I’ve come to expect from Chery, but something about the QQ just really bugs me. Anyways, the driver (yeah, I know, I could be a journalist with this one, quoting a taxi driver) complained about the worsening transport situation in Yanqing, saying that fewer and fewer people were taking miandi (and presumably heiche) now that the buses have the Yikatong swipe card system, and yet there aren’t any more buses than previously.
And here is precisely what I want to rant about: The 920s are still going every half hour, even though they’re packed to the gunnels by the second stop at Dongguan, and make a sardine can look postively spacious by comparison as they leave the county town. And the buses are only getting more and more crowded as there are fewer and fewer miandi plying the highway. And yet Bafangda is still running the old buses only every half hour.
I would’ve thought they could easily put on a bus every fifteen minutes, still have packed buses and make a tidy profit. Every ten minutes would probably be good. But no, even as public transport in Beijing and from Beijing to the outer suburbs (particularly Beijing to Yanqing) is improving by leaps and bounds every day, the transport situation in Yanqing is sliding slowly backwards.
This is really frustrating for two reasons:
- If most urban Chinese can’t really afford cars, then most rural Chinese sure as shit can’t afford anything more technological than a bicycle.
- Yanqing has a wealth of tourism resources! Surely improving the public transport situation is only going to make those toursim resources more easily accessible to the general public?
Alright, I’m done.
puppies
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing on October 3, 2008
When I saw Ma’s dog Niuniu the day we arrived back in the village, I thought, wow, her belly’s so big she must be just about to pop out half a dozen puppies! I was not entirely wrong. Yesterday afternoon she gave birth to five puppies, which have been crying and scrabbling for milk ever since. They’re tucked safely away in a corner of a make-shift shed which used to hold straw for the sheep, but fortunately the other animals have always been very tolerant of Niuniu’s puppies. Indeed, a cousin’s two year old is probably the most dangerous example of wildlife around at the moment.
Well, last morning in the village. After lunch we pack up and head back in to the city. We have a wedding to attend tomorrow (I believe) then on Monday it’s back to work. Dammit, reality has to intervene once again.
fog again
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing, weather on October 2, 2008
Another foggy morning. Well, the fog isn’t as thick as it was two days ago, but this time it’s accompanied by an overcast sky.
This is a strange autumn. I’ve never seen autumn fog in Yanqing. Rain, yes, but normally it’s starting to dry out by this time of year- and autumn comes earlier up here than it does down on the plain. But there’s been no rain, just constant damp.
big public transport news
Posted by wangbo in beijing public transport, news on October 1, 2008
Excellent news to match the experimental traffic restrictions! 新京报/The Beijing News’ Li Liqiang reports that not only is the subway to be dramatically extended, it will reach all the way to the Sixth Ring Road and within the Fourth Ring Road you won’t have to walk more than one kilometre to reach a subway station. And they’re going to keep the prices low.
北京轨道交通网将直达六环
Beijing’s rail transport network to reach Sixth Ring
四环内实现平均步行一公里即到地铁站，低价公交政策不变
Within the Fourth Ring there will be one subway on average every kilometre, public transport low-cost policy won’t change
昨日，北京市交通委公布了北京优先发展公共交通的计划，明确低价公交政策趋势不会变，今后两年，公交专用道将延长到450公里，阜石路、广渠路均将建设快速公交线。这些被认为是上周公布的机动车限行政策的补充。
Yesterday, Beijing Municipal Transport Committee announced the plan to prioritise the development of public transport and made clear that the direction of the low-cost public transport policy would not change. In the two years from today, the length of special bus lanes would be extended to 450 kilometres and express bus lanes would be built on Fushi Lu and Guangqu Lu. These are thought to be complementary to the traffic restriction policy announced last week.
The article is then broken into sections dealing with each specific point of the announced policy. First up is subway line 15:
15号线路线进行微调
Route of Line 15 being fine-tuned
北京市交通委副主任周正宇昨日介绍，除今年将要开工的建设7号和14号线这2条地铁线路，规划中的地铁15号线进行了微调，调整后的15号线将从顺义直达望京，然后经过大屯路、亚运村、奥运村、中关村、中央党校等地区。沿途经过奥林匹克中心区。
Vice-Chairman of the Beijing Municipal Transport Committee Zhou Zhengyu said yesterday that apart from the subway lines 7 and 14 which are to begin construction this year, the subway line 15 in the planning stages is being fine-tuned, and once it is set it will run from Shunyi to Wangjing, then through such areas as Datun Lu, Yayun Cun [Asian Games Village], Aoyun Cun [Olympic Games Village], Zhongguancun, and the Central Party School. ALong the way it will pass through the Olympic Centre.
周正宇表示，如果说10号线在北部地区走的是三环半，15号线在北部地区走的就是四环半。15号线将从地下穿过清华大学，并在奥林匹克中心区与奥运支线实现换乘，并下穿中关村地下环廊。目前，这条线正在加速准备中。
Zhou Zhengyu said, if Line 10 in its northern section takes the Third-and-a-half Ring, Line 15 will take the North Fourth-and-a-half Ring. Line 15 will pass underground through Tsinghua University, and will have an interchange with the Olympic Branch Line [Line 8] in the Olympic Centre, and make an underground loop around Zhongguancun. Currently, preparations for this line are being sped up.
Note: The northern section of Line 10 runs parallel with the North Third and Fourth Ring Roads roughly halfway in between them, hence “Third-and-a-half Ring”. Also, I think Mr Zhou needs a map in front of him before he starts giving directions. I would’ve thought Olympic Centre-Zhongguancun-Tsinghua would be a more logical order. They way he talks my mind has this new line doing a crazy zigzag across the north of the city. Anyway, a subway station every kilometre within the Fourth Ring (something Line 15 won’t be contributing much too):
四环内走一公里到地铁
Walk one kilometre you’ll reach a subway within the Fourth Ring
根据规划，北京将在中心区加密轨道交通线网，2015年，北京将实现“三环、四横、五纵、七放射”总长561公里的轨道交通网络，覆盖半径30公里，直到六环。今后北京市民出行，四环以内平均步行一公里，即可到达地铁站。
According to the plan, Beijing will expand the rail transport network in the central city. In 2015, Beijing will realise the “Three rings, four horizontals, five north-souths, seven radiates” for a rail transport network with a total length of 561 kilometres, covering a radius of 30 kilometres, reaching the Sixth Ring. In the future, when Beijing citizens go out, within the Fourth Ring they’ll be able to walk an average of one kilometre and reach a subway station.
Yeah, alright, I lied, it’s not a subway station every kilometre, only on average every kilometre. There’s a difference.
周正宇表示，中关村、金融街、西站、北京南站、奥林匹克公园和CBD等，都将有多条地铁轨道相连。昌平等7个区县和周边新城将均有轨道交通通行。
Zhou Zhengyu said Zhongguancun, Jinrong Jie [Finance Street], West Station, Beijing South Station, the Olympic Green, the CBD will all have several subway lines linking them. Changping and 7 other counties and districts and surrounding new towns will all have railways linking them.
广渠路将通快速公交线
Guangqu Lu to build an express bus line
在路权分配上，周正宇说，北京交通今后将进一步向公交、非机动车倾斜，到2010年，公交专用道将由目前的285公里延长到450公 里，7000人以上的居住小区都通达公交线路。目前，公交车进出站时和非机动车交叉过多的问题非常突出，这是最近一段时间内交通部门重点研究的课题。
On the distribution of road rights, Zhou Zhengyu said, that in the near future Beijing will incline one step further towards public transport and non-motorised vehicles. By 2010, special bus lanes will be extended from the current 285 kilometres to 450 kilometres, and over 7000 people’s residential areas will be reached by bus routes. Currently, there are many prominent problems when buses, on entering and exiting bus stops, cross with non-motorised traffic. This has been a key subject of research for the transport authorities in recent times.
周正宇表示，对于机动车、自行车和行人的路权分配，北京已启动专项研究。
Zhou Zhengyu said Beijing has already begun dedicated research on the allocation of road rights to motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians.
周正宇还称，阜石路大容量快速公交的建设正随道路建设而进行，另外，广渠路大容量快速公交的建设规划也在进行中。
Zhou Zhengyu also said, the construction of the high-capacity express bus route on Fushi Lu would progress in conjunction with the construction of the roadway. Also, the construction of the high-capacity express bus route along Guangqu Lu was in the planning stages.
Ouch. My impression is the Fushi Lu express bus route would be built at the same time as and along with the construction of the roadway itself. I’m still struggling to find a way to say that clearly.
准快速公交正在试验中
Standard express bus being experimented
除了大容量公交这种交通形式，周正宇表示，目前已在5路等公交线路上实行的“准快速公交系统”正在建设中。这种交通模式将采取一站直达、或大站快车式交通方式，实现快速“点对点”直达式运输。
Apart from the high-capacity express bus transport model, Zhou Zhengyu said that currently a “Standard Express Bus System” is being built along the Route 5 and other bus routes.
苹果园望京将建综合枢纽
Comprehensive hubs to be built at Pingguo Yuan and Wangjing
北京一级换乘节点为日换乘量8万人次以上的综合枢纽，目前已建成动物园、六里桥、西站北广场、东直门等。一亩园、西站南广场等正在建设中。还将规划建设北太平庄、苹果园、望京等综合枢纽，可实现公交、地铁、长途、出租、自行车等多种交通方式的无缝衔接和“零换乘”。
At present, comprehensive hubs, Beijing’s Level 1 interchanges with an interchange rate of over 80 thousand person-times per day, have been built at the Zoo, Liuli Qiao, West Station North Plaza, and Dongzhimen. They are under construction at Yimuyuan and West Station South Plaza. Comprehensive hubs are also planned to be built at Beitaiping Zhuang, Pingguoyuan, and Wangjing, where they can realise smooth linkage and “zero change” between many forms of transport such as bus, subway, long distance, taxi and bicycle.
No, I don’t really get the technical stuff in this paragraph. I assume “long distance” refers to inter-city/province trains and buses.
驻车换乘点将增24处
24 park-and-ride stations to be added
目前，在天通苑北、八通线北苑已建设完毕“驻车换乘”点，开始实行低价停车，私家车主凭当日乘坐地铁的记录，停一次车收费1元。今后在轨道交通线路和大容量快速公交沿线还将规划24处停车换乘场站，实行低价位或免费停车换乘的政策，引导小汽车换乘公共交通。
At present, the construction of “park-and-ride” stations has been completed at Tiantongyuan North and the Batong Line’s Beiyuan and the implentation of low-cost parking has begun. The fee for parking once is 1 yuan based on the driver’s record of using the subway the same day. 24 more park-and-ride stations along rail- and high-capacity express bus lines have been planned for the near future and a low-cost or free park-and-ride policy will be implemented, leading people to change from cars to public transport.
Well, it sounds like the city government has finally abandoned it’s “copy Texas and buy lots of huge cars” policy for an advanced, comprehensive transport system aimed at sidelining cars in favour of public transport and non-polluting, non-motorised vehicles (Go the bicycles! Transport of the future!). Excellent news, indeed.
grrrr…..
The problem we had in the HP laptop we bought at the end of the summer has resurfaced. I opened it up this morning and once again, the light at the back of the screen failed to turn on. It’s damn near impossible to use a laptop without that light going, you can only just barely make out the outlines of the biggest, brightest things on the screen. I’m guessing the cable that powers that light has come unstuck again. This is most irritating.
Fortunately Didi left the old Lenovo that we passed on to him up here. Even more fortunately, I somehow neglected to delete all my bookmarks in Firefox, meaning I have easy, easy access to all the websites I would normally visit without having to remember addresses- all but those I’ve found in the last month or two, that is, but I’m sure that won’t make much of a difference.
Unfortunately Didi doesn’t listen too well and installed QQ and other shitty malware-supplying software…. I’ll have to give him a damn good talking too next time I see him.
Unfortunately HP customer service is not serving customers over the holiday. lzh phoned the guy we bought it off and he said take it in on Monday and he’ll sort things out with HP and fix it as well as it can be fixed. Monday lzh has work and I have a full day of classes, so I guess it’ll have to wait till Tuesday afternoon.
In the meantime, it’s still possible that the minor jolts and vibrations involved in being packed up and put away and then taken out, set up, and opened again might knock the cable back into place, rendering the HP useable again. That’s happened before. It’s most embarrassing when you take it into the shop and the problem you want to complain about and have fixed doesn’t materialise. Anyway, we’ll see, and regardless of whether it starts working properly again or not, I will insist on having it properly fixed up next Tuesday.
Qianmen, again
Posted by wangbo in Chinese study, life in Beijing, news on September 30, 2008
Qianmen’s been in the news alot, lately. Well, firstly because of that big renovation project- a project that still has large empty sections left to fill in on either side of Qianmen Dajie proper. Then of course Qianmen Dajie itself was reopened to tourists on August 7, just in time for the Olympics. And with National Day security and safety measures and the expected influx of tourists for the holidays (150,000 on Day 1, apparently- it’s busiest day since the end of the Olympics, with 80% of the visitors coming from out of town), it’s back….
First up isn’t exactly news, beginning as it does in the 18th year of Kangxi’s reign, but it is a reminder: Qianmen Dajie has been renovated five times throughout it’s history.
5次大修缮筑成新前门
5 big renovations to build the new Qianmen
Now, a headline like that, you’d be expecting an article detailing the five separate projects to successively build the new Qianmen, but no, as I said, it’s been rebuilt five times in its history:
■ 秘史
■ Inside story
前门大街始建于1436年，历史上共有5次大修缮。
Qianmen Dajie was built in 1436, and in total five has had five major renovations in its history.
第一次是在康熙18年，公元1679年，因京城大地震造成房屋倒塌毁坏。
The first was in the 18th year of Kangxi’s reign, AD 1679, because an earthquake had collapsed and destroyed many buildings in the capital.
第二次是1900年，八国联军入侵北京城，前门大街被烧毁而修葺。
The second was in 1900, when Qianmen Dajie was repaired after having been burned down during the Eight Power Allied Army’s invasion of Beijing.
第三次是上世纪二十年代，人们印象中的前门大街从那时起开始建立。
The third was in the 1920s, which was the time when the Qianmen Dajie in people’s imagination began to be built.
第四次于上世纪70年代，全聚德烤鸭店等大型商厦始建于此时。
The fourth was in the 1970s, when Quanjude Roast Duck and other famous stores were built.
第五次就是于去年5月开始的修缮，今年8月7日再次与游客见面，建筑风格以上世纪二三十年代风格为主。前门大街共长846米，道路中央设置铛铛车轨道。
The fifth is the current round of renovation beginning in May last year, seeing tourists again from August 7 this year, built mainly in the style of the 1920s and 1930s. Qianmen Dajie is 846 metres long and a tram line is installed in the centre of the road.
Well, I saw the trams there when I cruised past last time, but they were sitting lifeless like museum pieces at the northern end of the street. Hopefully once the holiday crowds thin out, they’ll get the trams up and running. But here’s one thing that leapt out at me: The pace of renovation has picked up dramatically over the last 100 years. 1437 – 1679; 1679 – 1900; and then suddenly it’s regular renovations. And I’m guessing that the 1679 and 1900 rounds were pure disaster relief/reconstruction, and the 1920s and 1970s rounds were more rejuvenations, as in updating the street to match modern times. I’d be surprised if in any of those rounds of renovations the decision was made to rebuild some kind of Golden Age (well, the 1679 and 1900 rounds were obviously about restoring the street to its pre-earthquake/invasion state, but that’s hardly a leap back to a bygone era).
The second article looks at a problem that has emerged with the completion of the first phase of renovation and it’s potential solution in the next phase: Parking, for both bicycles and cars, or the lack thereof. This one comes with a bunch of photos of happy tourists and at least one local old-timer who makes approving noises about the renovations, but as nice as the photos are, they’re irrelevant, I feel, so I’m going to ignore them:
二期工程有望设停车场
Carparks hopefully will be installed in project’s second phase
有市民提出新前门附近不方便停车和存自行车
Some citizens have suggested that car- and bicycle parking is not convenient near the new Qianmen
[Silly rant: Screw the cars! Install huge bicycle parks and gigantic bus stops and make the drivers park far, far away! Ahem. Now, back to that article]
昨日，一些游客反映，骑车或者开车来前门，最让他们头疼的是没有停车场和存车处。前门大街安保指挥部负责人表示，此问题有望在二期工程时得以解决。
Yesterday, some tourists reported that their biggest headache in cycling or driving to Qianmen is that there are no car- or bicycle parks. The person in charge in the Qianmen Dajie security headquarters said this problem should hopefully be resolved in the second phase of the project.
一名带着孩子的北京市民表示，他们这次开车来前门，把车放在了距离前门大街几百米远的一块空地上，而且车位很少，很不方便。
A Beijing citizen with a child said that this time they drove to Qianmen, and parked their car in an empty space several hundred metres from Qianmen Dajie, and the parking space was very small, very inconvenient.
另外一名骑车的人则担心车子放在胡同里被盗，尤其是骑好车的人更有此担心，感觉逛街时心里还总惦记着外面的车子。
Another person who cycled was worried that bicycles would be stolen if left in a hutong, and those riding good bikes would be especially worried about this. He felt that while strolling, he was always thinking about his bike outside.
对此，前门大街安保指挥部负责人孙国进警官表示，这些问题目前正在解决中，在前门大街二期工程竣工后，停车场和正规的自行车存放处都将设立。前门大街二期工程现在正在论证当中，有可能是建成四合院样式的星级饭店。
To this, the person in charge at the Qianmen Dajie security headquarters Officer Sun Guojin said these problems are currently being resolved, and when the second phase of the Qianmen Dajie project is completed carparks and regular bicycle parks will be built. The second phase of the Qianmen Dajie project is now being proved, and there might be a Siheyuan-style star-rated hotel built.
Two things:
- What the hell does that hotel have to do with the parking situation?
- When I cruised past last time I saw two rather small bicycle parks on either side of the northern entrance to Qianmen Dajie and nothing at the southern end.
And considering how much I’ve posted about the Qianmen renovations, I guess I should go and explore it properly one day.
fog
Posted by wangbo in beijing public transport, life in Beijing, weather on September 30, 2008
This morning dawned thick, dank and foggy. The fog was so thick it obscured the other end of the courtyard. It’s clearing up now, slowly, and I can see clearly around this corner of the village, but the mountains up back are still shrouded.
Our trip back up to the village for the holiday was delayed so lzh’s brother could have a place to crash on his way back out to work in Tangshan. That’s alright, instead of a madcap dash from work to Deshengmen to get the earliest possible bus out, lzh could have a leisurely lunch with her brother, check out cheap Nokia phones for her father, then relax at home. And then, because her brother had to be up and out early to get the bus out to Tangshan, we could also get away and therefore back to the village much earlier than usual.
Yesterday also dawned grey and damp, at least down on the plain. It didn’t look like the best weather for a trip to Yanqing, but whatever, it’s not like we’re tourists looking for spectacular scenery.
But all this damp and cold, no wonder my lungs are playing up.
Anyway, I’ll stop the rambling on about the weather with this: Crossing the Jundushan, Beijing’s overcast gave way to blue sky, but there was a thick haze in the Yanqing basin. That haze cleared up well by the afternoon, though.
Well, our original plan was to get on a bus about midday Sunday. That way we could avoid most of the tourist rush and get maximum possible time out here. See, a crowd of Yanqingren heading home for the holidays is a pain in the arse, as all crowds are, but it’s much less hassle than a crowd of bloody tourists. Oh well, that didn’t pan out, so soon after Didi left yesterday morning we packed up the rest of our stuff, got some breakfast and got out.
We got to Deshengmen bang on 8 am- I think that’s the earliest we’ve ever managed. So, the ritual toilet stop- it’s far better to have a totally empty bladder (and gut, should that be an issue) when you get on the bus than to be sitting there in agony legs tightly crossed, sphincters so tensed they make weightlifters look relaxed begging the bus driver to get to Nancaiyuan just a little bit faster….. But to get to the toilet meant a quick preview of the queues. The Badaling queue was long, but only took up half the length roped off for it. The Yanqing queue was longer, but once again only taking up half the roped-off length. Guess they were expecting a lot more Yanqing passengers that morning. Arriving at the toilet meant more queueing. Then back up to join the Yanqing queue.
I didn’t pay much attention to the Badaling bus, but the Yanqing crew were loading two buses at a time- when it’s really busy they go three at a time- so we didn’t have to wait long, and were out of the station by about 8:30.
But of course, not all was plain sailing. There were traffic jams- in one case a very stupid jam caused by some idiot deciding to block a 200-odd metre length of the left hand lane of the expressway just up past Changping town for no obvious reason. Most of the traffic jams were caused by holiday traffic, though. Funnily enough, traffic from the Badaling tunnel to the Badaling off ramp was rather slow.
BUT
But the traffic, especially over the mountains was in general much, much smoother than it has been for months. Years of the bus having to slow down for and/or dodge trucks, and month upon month of horribly jammed traffic on that mountain section have finally come to an end now that the new G110s Beijing section has been fully linked up and truck and passenger traffic has finally been separated. Trucks take the new G110, passenger traffic the Expressway. The expected holiday traffic jams aside, the ride was so much smoother and more pleasant than we’ve experienced for ages.
But, well, we cheated. We got off at Nancaiyuan as per usual to get the 920 out to the village, but, faced with the crowds- there were still plenty of locals on their way home for the holiday (I don’t think any of the variations on the 920 theme are of any use to tourists)- we allowed ourselves to be talked into taking a ‘taxi’.
And so we arrived in the village not long after 10 am, which would normally be about the time we leave for Deshengmen.
And hopefully the trip back will be even easier. We’re leaving a couple of days early to attend the wedding of one of lzh’s classmates, and so we should manage to beat the crowds heading reluctantly back to work in the city. The crowds on the way back at the end of the holiday are always more hassle than the crowds on their way home at the start of the holiday. I’m not sure why that is.
And now lzh and her mother are in the county town getting Ma’s back massaged back into shape and no doubt shopping. Ba’s off in the fields working. Harvesting, I would imagine, but oddly enough there’s been no mention of corn so far. Normally that’s the big job over National Day- well, in previous years, it has been. And I’m at home with the dogs, the cat and 50-odd sheep for company, wasting time and money on the internet, drinking copious amounts of tea, as always.
Well, I did go for a short walk yesterday afternoon. I walked up past the local general store- which like most of those scattered through the villages here is a family-run operation in the side room of a regular courtyard with a door knocked through the outside wall- and through the small square that replaced the big pond of skanky water that was there. The square, when that pond was first demolished, filled in and concreted over, was just an expanse of concrete with some bare concrete benches around it. Now it has a ping-pong table, a couple of basketball hoops at either end of a way, way under-sized court, and a few items of that exercise equipment commonly found in Beijing housing estates, as well as two pavillions- one concrete, one wooden- for people to sit and chat in.
Then I went on a short loop through the nearer fields. Some patches had already been harvested, others were being harvested, but in general the fields seemed very heavily pregnant, bursting with produce just about ready to be brought in. And life, too. Birds, insects, and probably I lot more that I could neither see nor here, but which my dog, Zaizai, seemed very much aware of and interested in.
Speaking of pregnant: Ma’s dog Niuniu has a belly so big it looks about ready for half a dozen puppies to burst out at any moment.
Anyway, enough of the rambling. We’re back in Yanqing and it’s good.
Now, maybe I will go out and have a look at some of the village temples that were rebuilt about a year ago….
cutting traffic
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing, news on September 28, 2008
On the way out of the xiaomaibu this afternoon I saw a big, black, bold headline on the front page of the 法制晚报:
下月11 日起五环内试限行
Traffic restrictions to be tried within the Fifth Ring from the 11 of next month
Now that would seem to be good news. The devil, of course, is in the detail, so I guess I’d better actually read the article.
市政府发布通告 10月11日至明年4月10日实施交通管理措施
Municipal government has issued a notice: From 11 November to 10 April next year traffic management measures to be adopted
So far so good.
Trouble is there’s a red notice:
本站文章谢绝转载，否则法律后果自负！
Oh, so I guess I can’t do my usual copy-and-translate. 法晚很生气，后果很严重. Guess I’ll just have to read through then summarise it here. Anyways, from 11 October there’s going to be new trial traffic restrictions. First up, there’re going to have different times for starting and ending the work day so as to spread out morning and evening traffic, thereby hopefully evening out the morning and evening peak traffic. Makes sense. 京报网 also has a report on that here. Then there’s a rather ominous-sounding phrase about how yellow-sticker (heavily polluting) vehicles will have to be eliminated or updated by October 1 next year. Then there will be traffic restrictions once again based on the final digit of car license plates- but not the simple odds/evens rule we had over the Olympics. It’s a little more complex this time.
Alright, the details are a little much for me to take in all at once, so I’ll copy fazhi wanbao and go step by step:
Well, there is much preamble, but as it turns out the experimental traffic restrictions actually start 10 days earlier than the headline suggests:
Step 1: Public service vehicles, i.e. those vehicles belonging to government and party departments, and apparently work units under government departments and state owned enterprises. From October 1 these vehicles will be subject to traffic restrictions based on the last digit of their license plate, except on public holidays and ‘public rest days’ (weekends, in other words, or those days weekends have been swapped with to make up for Golden Week holidays). Ummm…. so these restrictions begin on a public holiday, meaning public servants have 3, if not 5 days grace to drive their official cars at will before the restrictions actually bite? Anyway, key point: These restrictions apply 24 hours per day. The article actually says from 0:00 to 24:00.
Step 2: Private cars. Private cars with Beijing plates and those from other provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities in Beijing long term will face similar restrictions within the Fifth Ring Road based on the last digit of their license plate. Key point of difference is that these vehicles are only restricted from 6 am to 9 pm, and that they get a discount on what I believe would translate into a Kiwi context as road user charges and registration fees- except that so far as I can tell (I’ve never owned anything with an internal combustion engine in my life) such charges apply to all vehicles here, whereas road user charges apply only to diesels in NZ. But the translation of those car-owning expenses is beside the point: In return for accepting these restrictions, drivers save a little on those myriad costs involved in owning a car. Also, the restrictions do not apply to vehicles from outside Beijing in the city for short periods or passing through Beijing on their way to somewhere else.
Note: This section clearly says within the Fifth Ring Road. I did not see that phrase in the ‘public service vehicles’ section.
I guess what confuses me is how they’re going to tell the difference between non-Beijing vehicles here for long and short periods. Maybe that’s stamped on that 进京证 (enter the capital certificate) outside vehicles need to drive in Beijing? Or is that document only necessary for those in Beijing long term? And if so, how is that rule enforced? Oh well, that’s the police’s job, I guess they already know how to enforce that, considering how long the 进京证 has been necessary.
Oh, and for those that don’t know: Chinese license plates mark clearly which province/autonomous region/municipality a vehicle is registered in (except military vehicles).
So these restrictions are based on the last digit of the license plate and run on a rotating basis something along these lines:
- On Mondays cars with plates ending in 1 and 6 stay at home
- Tuesdays it’s 2 and 7
- Wednesdays it’s 3 and 8
- Thursdays it’s 4 and 9
- Fridays it’s 5 and 0
- “English letters” = 0
And of course there are exceptions for the emergency services (fire, police, ambulance) public transport (domestic Beijing buses and trolley buses, inter-provincial long distance buses and taxis (excluding rental cars)), company cars, school vehicles and those with diplomatic plates, and a couple of classes of vehicles in Beijing temporarily that I can’t quite figure out.
Step 3: Yellow-sticker, heavily polluting vehicles. From October 1 next year they won’t be allowed within the Sixth Ring Road. Actually, I’m not sure I can figure out how they’re going to progressively crack down on such vehicles, but it’s not just a “keep them out of the 6th Ring from October 1 next year” thing, they’re going to be working on eliminating or updating such vehicles in the intervening period, with ever tighter restrictions as time goes on.
Step 4: From October 11 the times for starting and stopping work will be staggered so as to even out the morning and evening traffic peaks. Actually, I think 京报网 does this better, but even so I’m struggling to figure out the differences between each kind of work unit. So far as I can tell, though, central and municipal government and party organisations and schools don’t change. Large shopping centres will open at 10 am. Other work units and social organisation will split between opening times of 8:30, 9:00 and 9:30, and close 8 hours later.
There’s more to it than that, but to be honest, I’m getting too tired to sort it all out, and it doesn’t particularly bother me because those affected by the changes will be told the new times they start and stop work each day, I’m sure.