Beijing Railway Station

　　Beijing Railway Station was first built in 1901 (the 27th year of the Guangxu reign in 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). It was formerly known as the "Peking–Fengtian Railway Zhengyangmen East Station." Over the course of history, it has also been called Qianmen Station, Beijing Station, Beiping Station, and Beiping East Station. On September 30, 1949, it was renamed Beijing Railway Station, the name it still holds today, and is often referred to as the "Gateway to the Capital."

　　The newly built Beijing Railway Station is located between Dongdan and Jianguomen (No. 13A Maojiawan Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing, postal code 100005). It faces 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 grand and magnificent, resplendent and combining a strong ethnic style with modern facilities. It is one of the ten most famous buildings in the capital commemorating 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 Chinese railway development. On the eve of its opening, Chairman Mao Zedong inspected the new Beijing Railway Station and later personally inscribed its name.

　　Beijing Railway Station is a national first-class passenger railway station. It covers a floor area of 250,000 square meters. The station layout is linear, divided into an arrival-departure yard, a transfer yard, and a shunting yard. The line jurisdiction extends to 7.0 km downline on the Beijing–Shanhaiguan line and 2.3 km downline on the Beijing–Chengde line. It primarily handles passenger transport services along 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, during five national railway schedule adjustments and speed increases, the number, direction, and class of scheduled trains at Beijing Railway Station continuously changed. With the increase in “morning departure, evening arrival” and “evening departure, morning arrival” trains, the station experienced two peak periods of passenger boarding and alighting—morning and evening. Especially with the rise of the holiday economy, this brought a series of changes to the station’s transportation organization work, promoting improvements in passenger and freight marketing and service quality.

　　The station currently has eight platforms. Initially, each platform was 371 meters long with an area of 34,133 square meters, and there were six rain shelters covering a total of 25,100 square meters. Since 1976, through successive eastward and westward platform extension projects, the effective lengths of the platforms have been increased to between 497 meters and 603 meters, allowing them to accommodate 18 to 20 passenger cars and meeting the needs of expanded train formations while increasing the station’s passenger 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 the Beijing Railway Station capacity expansion project was put into use, featuring the first 79,000-square-meter column-free rain shelters on a platform in the national railway system, two newly built platforms, three additional train arrival-departure lines, and a large underground baggage storage facility covering 20,000 square meters.

　　The station building faces south and is 218 meters wide from east to west, with a maximum depth of 124 meters from north to south, and a construction area of 71,054 square meters. The station square covers an area of 40,000 square meters. Major service facilities inside the station include six VIP rooms (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 to the platforms, six escalators, and seven elevators; one ticket hall, one international ticket office, and one transit visa and express 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, automatic broadcasting, guidance displays, automated inquiries, and automated ticket checking and 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, achieving the goal of "maintaining the original style, presenting a new look, offering comprehensive functions, and leading in technology." Beijing Railway Station introduced, developed, and used 10 new technological projects: a central air conditioning system, an automatic sprinkler fire extinguishing 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, and the launch of flat wireless light signaling shunting equipment. These further improved technological management standards to meet the varying needs of both on-site operations and passengers. 　

　　The Beijing Railway Station multi-business system was first established in December 1980 and is divided into diversified economy and collective economy (collectively referred to as the "two economies"). After the major renovation, the station has complete auxiliary multi-economy facilities, including the Beijing Station Guesthouse, a business center, a coffee shop, a travel department, a movie and video hall, Xinhua Bookstore, a periodicals and newspapers retail outlet, a second-floor observation deck, Bailuo Supermarket, department store counters, a commercial street, electronic lockers, a small luggage storage area, a baggage and parcel packing service, the Red Hat small-item moving service, the Metropolis restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, the Fragrant Chicken Fast Food Restaurant, and the Yangfang Shengli Hot Pot Lamb—Beijing Railway Station branch, forming a relatively rational 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: the Office, the Labor and Personnel Department, the Planning and Finance Department, the Safety Department, the Technology Department, the Passenger Transport Business Department, and the Staff Education Department. Production units include the Computer Statistics Room. There are three party and mass organizations: the Party Committee, the Trade Union, and the Youth League Committee. It has six production workshops: Passenger Transport, Ticketing, Operations, Sanitation, Construction, and Equipment.

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

　　Beijing Railway Station is an important hub of 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 closely with the capital. Passenger trains departing from Beijing Railway Station can reach neighboring countries’ capitals, including Moscow in the Soviet Union, Pyongyang in North Korea, and Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.

　　Beijing Railway Station is geographically 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 whole country, and the Chinese people with people around 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, Premier Zhou Enlai, Chairman Zhu De, and other central leaders visited the station and offered important instructions. Chairman Mao personally inscribed the three large characters for “Beijing Station.” The station placed these three-dimensional characters at the center top of the station’s facade according to Premier Zhou’s instructions.

　　By September 25, 1959, a total of 38,448 people, including leaders from various central ministries, foreign embassies and delegations in China, experts, domestic democrats, people’s representatives, CPPCC members, public groups, workers, students, cadres, and citizens, had visited the station. 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.

Beijing Railway Station