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2nd Ring Road

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The ring road can be divided into two parts: the original ring road (the southern section of which is now excluded from the current ring road), and the newly extended ring road. This article only covers the current (new) 2nd Ring Road.

History and geography

The 2nd Ring Road runs close to where Beijing's city walls once stood; numerous junctions bear the old city gate's name. A small number of these city gates themselves still stand: Southeast corner tower, Deshengmen and Yongdingmen (which has been rebuilt). Most of the old city walls were pulled down shortly after the People's Republic of China was established in 1949.

Although it was suggested that the 2nd Ring Road was built over the old city walls, by comparing current city maps with old maps of Beijing, it has been found this is not exactly true. The road instead mostly follows the former moat that surrounded the city wall; in places, the moat survives as a canal. The 2nd ring road was completed in the 1980s.

All traffic lights were removed in the 1990s, and several new overpasses were built.

In 2001, the 2nd Ring Road was overhauled. It was fully re-surfaced, and greenery substantially increased.

Much of Line 2 of the Beijing Subway runs underneath the Second Ring Road. Many stations have exits on both sides of the road, with the exception of Andingmen.

The Old 2nd Ring Road

The former "old 2nd Ring Road" has an elliptical shape. Its northwest corner is at Xizhimen, the northeast corner is at Dongzhimen, and southern corners are at Dongbianmen and Xibianmen. The southern side is the so-called "Metro Road" which goes through Qianmen, at the southern end of Tian'anmen Square.

The New 2nd Ring Road

The new road is simply an extension of the western and eastern parts of the original 2nd Ring Road. It extends beyond Dongbianmen and Xibianmen, thus reaching Zuo'anmen to the southeast and the Caihuying overpass complex in the southwest. The extensions were known for a while as the external 2nd Ring Road, though this term is becoming more and more unpopular.

Gates and the 2nd Ring Road

The 2nd Ring Road passes the sites of many of the old city gates around Beijing. These include:

  • Deshengmen
  • Andingmen
  • Dongzhimen
  • Chaoyangmen
  • Guangqumen
  • Zuo'anmen
  • Yongdingmen
  • You'anmen
  • Guang'anmen
  • Fuchengmen
  • Xizhimen

Only Deshengmen and Yongdingmen (rebuilt 2005) still stand; the others were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s.

Gates through which the former Inner 2nd Ring Road ("Metro Road") passes are:

  • Chongwenmen
  • Zhengyangmen
  • Xuanwumen

Only Zhengyangmen is still standing today.

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