Beijing: Where Were You 'Trapped' Today?

"With a population of 13 million, the city has 54 kilometers of subway lines, which handle 10 percent of the city's public transport volume and account for 5 percent of the city's total traffic flow. In contrast, Tokyo, with a population roughly as large, has an urban rail network of 2,000 kilometers in length, which handles 80 percent of the city's passenger volume. At long last, Beijing officials have come to realize that to tackle the problem at its root, they have to change the layout of the entire urban Beijing -- to change the outmoded, monolithic urban planning.According to Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Traffic Committee, multi-functional centers will be built in suburban districts such as Tongzhou and Shunyi. These are to eventually develop into medium-sized cities each with a populations of more than half a million... People living there will work near their homes, without having to shuttle between their homes in remote satellite towns and their workplaces in downtown Beijing."

Thanks to Laura Kranz