Beijing Municipal Administration and Communications Card
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Beijing Municipal Administration and Communications Card (北京市政交通一卡通) is a store-value contactless smart card used in Beijing, China, for public transportation and related uses. Colloquially, the card is often called Yikatong, which means "one card pass" in Chinese, reflecting on the eventual "Swiss Army Knife"-like usage of card services. It is similar to the Octopus card used in Hong Kong.
[edit] History
Yikatong was first put into use at the end of 2003 on Beijing subway Line 13 and certain bus routes. The card was introduced after previous smart card pilot projects proved to be successful.
On May 10, 2006, Yikatong was expanded to Beijing's entire subway system and all bus routes. It also replaced the old paper monthly passes. Some taxis also began to accept Yikatong for payments.
For several years after its introduction, Yikatong was not widely adopted by commuters due to its limited usefulness, relatively high deposit and limited availability. However, adoption soared after the expansion of the system in May 2006, along with the opening of more outlets for users to purchase and recharge their cards. While some commuters initially complained about long queues at bus stops, the system has now been adopted by many Beijing commuters. On May 16, 2006, 4,471,800 transactions were made using Yikatong.
The system is expected to be further expanded for payments of parking fees and expressway tolls.
[edit] Cost
The card can be bought against a deposit of CNY 20, and can have its value refilled in units of CNY 10. The deposit is used to cover non-sufficient funds for a single trip, and will be refunded when the card is returned.
When paying by the card, passengers get 60% off the normal bus fare. For example, a single ticket for bus lines between 1-199 is CNY 1. For passengers paying by card, a same ticket costs CNY 0.4 only.
The previous monthly passes have been canceled. Instead, 3 kinds of short-term passes were introduced in Feb 2, 2007 for tourists. They are 3-day, 7-day and 14-day passes, which cost CNY 10, CNY 20, and CNY 40 respectively, with usage limitations as 18, 42, and 90 respectively. Those cards also requires CNY 20 deposit which will be refunded. No refills available for those short term cards. No photo is required, and cards can be transferred.
