Riding the Metro in China: Tickets, Security Checks and Rush Hour
Published 2026-10-23 · 71Asia Tours
The metro is not the budget option. It is the option.
I have spent more time than I would like to admit standing on Chinese subway platforms at 8am, watching four trains go past because they were too full to board. I still take the metro almost every day I am in a Chinese city. Not because it is cheap, but because it is the one part of the transport system that behaves predictably. A taxi in Beijing can turn a 20-minute ride into 70 minutes at 6pm. Line 2 will not.
Seven mainland cities have networks big enough that a visitor will use them without thinking: Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei each run separate systems with different cards and different habits, which I will get to at the end.
Buying a ticket without speaking Chinese
Every station has machines with an English button in the corner. Tap it, tap your destination on the map, pay. You get a plastic token, not a paper ticket, and you tap it on the reader at the gate. Keep the token: you need it to get out.
Two better options if you are staying more than a day:
- Transport card. Beijing's Yikatong and Shanghai's Public Transport Card are sold at station service windows and some convenience stores. You pay a deposit of around 20 RMB, load cash, and tap through. Refund the card and deposit at major stations at the end of your trip.
- QR code in Alipay or WeChat. Search for the metro mini-program inside the app, add your foreign card, and you get a scannable code at the gate. It works in most large cities now, but the setup screens assume a Chinese phone number in places, so give yourself ten minutes and a good connection the first time.
Contactless Visa and Mastercard work at the gates in many Beijing and Shanghai stations, but not reliably enough that I would skip a backup. Fares run from about 3 RMB for two stops to 10 or 12 RMB for a long cross-city ride. Airport lines are priced separately: the Beijing Capital Airport Express is 25 RMB, and Shanghai's Maglev to Pudong Airport is 50 RMB.
Security checks are part of the trip
Every mainland station has an X-ray scanner at the entrance. Put your bag on the belt, walk through the arch, and if you are carrying a bottle of water, expect to be asked to take a sip. Lighters, pocket knives and anything aerosol go in the bin. The whole thing takes 90 seconds at a quiet station and five minutes at a busy one.
There is no negotiating your way out of it. I have watched visitors argue with the attendant about a Swiss Army knife and lose. Leave it at the hotel.
Reading the system
Line numbers and colours are consistent, signage is bilingual in all seven big cities, and newer lines announce stops in English. Two things trip people up.
First, direction is shown by the terminus, not by the next station. If you are on Beijing Line 1 heading to Tiananmen East, you want the train marked Pingguoyuan. Check the station list on the platform wall, not just the signs above your head.
Second, exits matter more than the station name. In Chongqing, where the city is built on hills, Exit B and Exit D can put you on opposite sides of a valley with a 15-minute walk between them. In Shanghai's People's Square, guessing costs you a block. Every station map has a street-level diagram of the exits. Look at it before you go up the escalator.
Rush hour, luggage and the last train
Peak times are 7:30 to 9:00 and 17:30 to 19:00. Trains arrive packed, and the doors will close on your bag if you are slow. If you are carrying a suitcase, avoid those windows. There are no luggage racks, and escalators are not guaranteed at every exit, so a 23kg bag means stairs.
Last trains leave between roughly 22:30 and 23:30 depending on the line and city,. I have seen people discover this at 23:40 outside a station in Chengdu with a 40-minute walk ahead of them. Check the last train time for your line when you arrive in the morning, not when you are leaving a restaurant at night.
Small rules that locals follow
Let passengers off before you get on. Stand on the right of the escalator. Do not eat or drink on the train; Beijing and Shanghai both fine people for it. The seats at the ends of each carriage are reserved for elderly passengers, pregnant women and people with disabilities, and giving them up is expected rather than appreciated.
Transfers can be long. Xizhimen in Beijing and People's Square in Shanghai both mean several minutes of walking between platforms, so I add 10 minutes to any journey that changes lines twice.
Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei are different systems
Hong Kong's MTR has no security check, uses the Octopus card, and is genuinely the best metro I have used anywhere. Macau has almost no rail: the LRT runs only along the Cotai strip, and you will spend most of your time on buses. Taipei's MRT runs on an EasyCard, bans eating, drinking and even chewing gum inside the paid area, and fines for breaking that rule run to several thousand New Taiwan dollars. None of these three accept the mainland transport cards, so budget for a separate card in each.
What I actually do
On arrival I buy a transport card at the airport or the first station, keep 50 RMB loaded, and use the metro for everything inside the city. I use DiDi only after the last train, for the airport with heavy bags, or when the destination is genuinely off the network. That combination has never failed me, and it costs less per day than a single airport taxi.
Written by the team at 71Asia Tours, a China-based tour operator with licensed Spanish- and English-speaking guides. Browse all tours · About us · Our guides · Reviews · FAQ