Capital on fast track to become the world's biggest subway

Beijing's bigger and better subway system has been a long time incoming. But like everything in China, its rate of growth in the past year has been phenomenal.

Four new lines and about 50 new stations opened over the past year in the lead up to the Games. By the middle of the next decade, the Beijing subway will become the world's largest and play a key role in taking cars off the city's roads.

From 2002 the city invested more than $7.69 billion on the new subway system. By 2015 there are plans for 19 lines in total and 561 km of track linking almost every part of the city.