Beijing Railway Station Building

Beijing Railway Station Building

The Beijing Railway Station Building is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Beijing Railway Station was first built in 1901 (the 27th year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty), originally located on the east side of the Zhengyangmen barbican (now the site of the Old Station Mall and the Shou Tie Cultural Palace), and was formerly known as the "Zhengyangmen East Station of the Peking–Fengtian Railway." Over time, it has also been called Qianmen Station, Beijing Station, Beiping Station, and Beiping East Station. On September 30, 1949, it was renamed Beijing Station, a name it retains to this day, and is often referred to as the "Gateway to the Capital."

Beijing Railway Station

The new Beijing Railway Station is situated between Dongdan and Jianguomen (No. 13A Maojiawan Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing, postal code 100005), bordered by the Tonghui River to the east, Chongwenmen to the west, the Ming city wall ruins to the south, and Chang’an Avenue to the north, approximately 2.6 kilometers from the city center. Construction began on January 20, 1959, was completed on September 10, and commenced operations on September 15. Its architecture is magnificent and resplendent, combining rich ethnic style with modern facilities, making it one of the ten most famous buildings in the capital celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The speed, scale, and technological sophistication of its construction are considered a miracle in the history of China’s railway development. On the eve of its opening, Chairman Mao Zedong inspected the new Beijing Railway Station and personally inscribed its name.

Beijing Railway Station is a national first-class passenger railway station. It covers an area of 250,000 square meters. The station layout is linear, divided into arrival-departure yards, transfer yards, and shunting yards. Line jurisdiction: down to 7.0 km on the Beijing–Shanhaiguan line and 2.3 km on the Beijing–Chengde line. It primarily handles passenger transport services on the Beijing–Shanhaiguan, Beijing–Qinhuangdao, Beijing–Shanghai, Beijing–Chengde, Beijing–Yuanping, and Beijing–Baotou lines, and operates international and international through passenger trains to Pyongyang, Ulaanbaatar, and Moscow. From 1998 to 2004, following five nationwide railway schedule adjustments and speed increases, the number, direction, and class of scheduled trains at Beijing Railway Station continued to change. With the increase of "morning departure–evening arrival" and "evening departure–morning arrival" trains, two peak periods for passenger boarding emerged — morning and evening. Especially with the rise of holiday travel, this brought a series of changes to the station’s transportation organization, spurring improvements in both passenger and freight marketing and service quality.

The station currently has eight platforms. Initially, each platform was 371 meters long, covering an area of 34,133 square meters, with six rain shelters totaling 25,100 square meters. Since 1976, multiple eastward and westward platform expansion projects have extended platform lengths to between 497 and 603 meters, allowing them to accommodate 18 to 20 passenger cars, meeting the needs of expanded train formations and increasing the station’s passenger handling capacity. In 2002, the total platform area was 46,838 square meters, and the total rain shelter area was 27,278 square meters. In April 2004, the main body of Beijing Railway Station’s capacity expansion project was put into use. It was the first in the country to feature 79,000 square meters of column-free platform rain shelters, two newly built platforms, three additional arrival-departure tracks, and a large underground baggage storage facility covering 20,000 square meters.

The station building faces north, is 218 meters wide from east to west, and has a maximum depth of 124 meters from north to south, with a floor area of 71,054 square meters. The station forecourt covers 40,000 square meters. Major service facilities inside the station include: six VIP lounges (both large and small), one soft-seat waiting room, four regular waiting rooms, one elevated ticket-checking hall waiting room, and four priority passenger waiting areas; two pedestrian overpasses, six escalators, and seven elevators; one ticket hall, one international ticket office, and one express transit service counter.

The modernization of Beijing Railway Station’s passenger service facilities began in 1976. Since then, systems such as computerized ticketing, TV monitoring, automated baggage weighing and ticketing, wireless communication, automated broadcasting, guidance displays, automated inquiries, and automated ticket checking along with computer management have been successively established. From May 1998 to September 1999, the Ministry of Railways and the Beijing Municipal Government carried out a major seismic reinforcement and renovation project at Beijing Railway Station, realizing the concept of "preserving the original style, presenting a renewed appearance, offering comprehensive functionality, and leading in technology." The station introduced, developed, and used ten new technological projects, including: a central air-conditioning system, an automatic sprinkler fire system, a passenger guidance display system, a multifunctional passenger broadcasting system, a telephone-computer inquiry and TV monitoring system, a multimedia touch inquiry system, an automated ticket-checking system, automated ticket vending machines, a website service, the launch of a planar wireless lamp signaling shunting system — all further improving technological management and meeting diverse operational and passenger needs.

The diversified business system of Beijing Railway Station was first established in December 1980, divided into multi-industry economy and collective economy (collectively referred to as the "two economies"). After the station’s major renovation, auxiliary diversified facilities were fully equipped, including: the Beijing Station Guesthouse, Business Center, café, Tourist Department, movie and video hall, Xinhua Bookstore, periodicals and newspapers retail outlet, second-floor observation deck, Baila Supermarket, department store counters, commercial street, electronic locker storage, small luggage storage, baggage and parcel packing service, red-cap porters for small items, Metropolis, Chinese restaurant, Fragrant Chicken Fast Food Restaurant, Yangfang Shengli Hot Pot Lamb – Beijing Station branch, forming a reasonably well-distributed commercial layout that continuously improves and extends the station’s service functions.

Beijing Railway Station is under the administration of the Beijing Railway Bureau. Administratively, it has seven departments: Office, Labor and Personnel Department, Planning and Finance Department, Safety Department, Technology Department, Passenger Transport Business Department, and Staff Education Department; production units include: Computer Statistics Room; party-mass organizations consist of three sections: Party Committee, Trade Union, and Youth League Committee. There are six production workshops: Passenger Transport, Ticketing, Operations, Sanitation, Construction, and Equipment.

Beijing Railway Station is an important window for both railway and capital civilization. Since the new station’s establishment, it has transported a cumulative total of 1.42 billion passengers, handled 313 million pieces of baggage, and generated 28.56 billion yuan in operating revenue. It has set numerous records in China’s railway passenger transport. By the end of 2005, it had achieved 2,288 days without general train accidents, 8,388 days without hazardous incidents, 12,665 days without major or serious accidents, 6,616 days without work-related fatalities, 4,574 days without serious injuries, and 3,384 days without minor injuries, marking its sixth consecutive year of safety — the best performance in its history. Over 45 years, it has received 104 honors awarded by the nation, the Ministry of Railways, and the Beijing Municipality, including "National Red Flag Station," "National Advanced Unit in Creating Civilized Industries," "National Customer Service Satisfaction Unit," "Civilized Station of the National Railways," "Capital Civilized Unit," and "Beijing Health Red Flag Unit." In August 2000, it was named a "Brand Station" of the national railways by the Ministry of Railways. On January 1, 2005, Beijing Railway Station passed the ISO9000 International Quality Management System certification.

Beijing Railway Station is a key hub for national railway passenger transport. Before the opening of Beijing West Railway Station in 1996, it was the largest in scale and most advanced in equipment. Major trunk lines such as the Beijing–Baotou, Beijing–Shanghai, and Beijing–Shanhaiguan connect China’s vast territory with the capital in a closely integrated whole. Passenger trains departing from Beijing Railway Station can reach the capitals of neighboring countries such as Moscow in the Soviet Union, Pyongyang in North Korea, and Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.

Geographically, Beijing Railway Station is located within Beijing’s Second Ring Road, south of Jianguomen and west of Dongbianmen, in the city center.

Beijing Railway Station is not only an important window for the capital and the people’s railway but also an important window for the People’s Republic of China. It serves as a bridge and bond connecting the people of the capital with the people of the nation, and the Chinese people with the people of the world. Therefore, constructing a modern capital railway station and ensuring the effective operation of Beijing Railway Station hold special significance.

From September 13 to 14, 1959, when the new station was first completed, Chairman Mao Zedong, [other leaders], Chairman [name], Premier [name], and other central leaders visited the station and offered important instructions. Chairman Mao personally inscribed the three large characters “北京站” (Beijing Station). Following Premier Zhou’s suggestion, these three-dimensional characters were placed at the center top of the station’s facade.

By September 25, 1959, a total of 38,448 people had visited the station, including leaders from various central ministries, foreign embassies and delegations in China, experts, domestic democrats, NPC deputies, CPPCC members, people’s organizations, workers, students, cadres, and citizens. Among them were 159 central leaders at the vice-ministerial level or above, nine marshals, 16 generals, 68 democrats, 1,300 CPPCC members, and 622 foreign envoys, journalists, and experts.

On October 7, 2019, the Beijing Railway Station Building was included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units