Ring Roads of Beijing
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Beijing is one of the very few cities to possess multiple ring roads (or beltways). Among the rarest seen anywhere in a major city in the world is Beijing's 2nd Ring Road, which is extremely central to Tian'anmen, the centre of Beijing.
1st Ring Road
Oddly enough, there is the lack of a 1st Ring Road. This may have referred to a rectangle of roads around the intersections at Dongdan, Xidan, Dongsi, and Xisi; a less popular explanation is that it may also be a mapmaker's fiction, and nonexistent.
The notion of "1st Ring Road" briefly appeared after the end of the Cultural Revolution, during which the original names of the roads described above were changed to names with strong political propaganda meaning that eulogized and advocated the ideologies of the Cultural Revolution, and when the political turmoil had ended, the names obviously had to be changed again. One suggestion was to completely rename those roads as "1st Ring Road" to symbolize the new start in the era of reform, as well as to reflect the willingness of China to embrace modernness and globalization, but this suggestion was quickly turned down because most people favored the original names of the roads and believed in their historical meaning and cultural heritage, and more importantly, they felt that returning the orignial names also had more symbolic meaning of denouncing Cultural Revolution. Therefore, the original names of the roads were adopted once again, and the phrase "1st Ring Road" is seldom heard again.
Maps in Beijing do not actually show the 1st Ring Road as such; only very few maps give a faint yellow highlight of a possible variant of it.
2nd Ring Road
- Main Article: 2nd Ring Road
The 2nd Ring Road passes through very central parts of Beijing, and is close to the Beijing Railway Station. Prices of real estate inside the ring road are considerably higher than other parts of town (for very obvious reasons!).
The 2nd Ring Road of today is part of an extended ring road which takes the southern route through Zuo'anmen and Caihuying instead of Qianmen Road, just south of Tian'anmen.
3rd Ring Road
- Main Article: 3rd Ring Road
4th Ring Road
- Main Article: 4th Ring Road
The 4th Ring Road, along with other ring roads, now have a few locations where "fake" police lights (red and blue in colour) light up at night. Drivers are too easily fooled into thinking that the police is out in force. Indirectly, this forces drivers to slow down, while also scaring the daylights out of drivers. The "fake" lights are always after a speed trap. The best way to avoid falling into this trap altogether is to drive according to the speed limits -- not faster, not slower.
5th Ring Road
- Main Article: 5th Ring Road
This ring road is further distant (around 10 km) from central Beijing, and links the suburbian areas of Huantie, Shigezhuang, Dingfuzhuang and Ciqu. It also passes through the Beijing Development Area. It navigates through very barren land in the south before heading west toward the Fragrant Hills.
Due to its proximity to future Olympic venues, it has been nicknamed the "Olympic Avenue".
6th Ring Road
- Main Article: 6th Ring Road
This toll expressway ring road links Beijing with Shunyi District, Tongzhou District, Changping District and Daxing District.
7th Ring Road
- Main article: 7th Ring Road
The size of such a 7th Ring Road, exceeding the city limits of Beijing, would actually link very distant districts and townships and expand into the neighbouring provinces and cities. In essence, this wouldn't be Beijing's 7th Ring Road, but the region's "7th Ring Road".
Sources say that, with the creation of a 7th Ring Road, a second airport for Beijing won't be too far away.
In 2004, the central government approved a new plan for Beijing which disposed of the idea of a 7th Ring Road.
Further Ring Roads?
The ring-like spreading out of Beijing has many prompting whether or not an 8th Ring Road or even 9th Ring Road will be built. At current, no such plans are on the drawing board.
Views are mixed on the potential construction of such ring roads, with some voices coming out against. Many fear that the incessant "ringing" of Beijing won't actually solve Beijing's population (and traffic) problems, and advocate a satellite-town method instead.
Inter-ring road connection routes
There also exist many connection routes between the ring roads. The ones listed below are all expressways or express routes. Travel on these routes is often surprisingly smooth, as there are no traffic lights on them.
11 routes are under construction as of 2004.
- Xueyuan Road (N. 4th Ring Road - N. 5th Ring Road, under projection)
- Badaling Expressway (as of N. 2nd Ring Road, expressway as of N. 3rd Ring Road, constructed)
- Jingcheng Expressway (as of N. 3rd Ring Road, partially constructed)
- Airport Expressway (as of N. 3rd Ring Road, portion connecting to N. 2nd Ring Road under construction as an express route)
- Yaojiayuan Road (E. 3rd Ring Road - N. 5th Ring Road, connecting to projected Jingping Expressway, under projection)
- Tonghui River North Road (E. 2nd Ring Road - E. 4th Ring Road, under construction as an express route)
- Jingshen Expressway (as of E. 4th Ring Road, portion connecting to E. 2nd Ring Road under construction)
- Jingjintang Expressway (as of E. 3rd Ring Road, constructed)
- Puhuangyu Road (as of S. 2nd Ring Road to S. 5th Ring Road, under construction/projection)
- Jingkai Expressway (as of S. 2nd Ring Road, expressway as of S. 3rd Ring Road, constructed)
- Fengbei Road (W. 2nd Ring Road - Jingshi Expressway (after Yuquan Road exit), under construction)
- Lianhuachi West Road (W. 3rd Ring Road - W. 6th Ring Road, opened October 15, 2005)
- Fushi Road (W. 3rd Ring Road - W. 5th Ring Road, under projection)
- Xizhimen Outer Street extension (W. 3rd Ring Road (Beijing) - W. 5th Ring Road, under construction/projection)
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