Push for a calmer commute

With construction set to end this year on five new subway lines in the capital and work about to begin on four more, Beijing is hurtling toward a world-leading underground system more quickly than a bullet train on a bobsleigh run.

Liu Yinchun, deputy director of the Beijing municipal commission of development and reform, told METRO last week that the five lines that will open this year will add more than 300 km to the city's already impressive underground rail network.

And crews will continue to work on four additional lines that will open in the following years.