HOW TO get a Yikatong Transit Card
Getting a Yikatong (Yī kǎ tōng / 一卡通) is an essential piece of living in Beijing. It allows you to use the huge public transportation system for a substantial discount over paying by cash. A few convenience stores also allow it as a method of payment.
Getting these Beijing metro pass cards can be tough if you don’t speak any Chinese. I just assumed you could buy them at any subway station. Most subway stations have service counters, but sometimes all they do is sell single-use tickets or provide coin change for the ticket machines. This can be maddening for people who have experienced the foreigner-friendly simplicity and ubiquity of Hong Kong’s Octopus cards or Seoul’s T-Money cards.
What I did was I went to several subway stations and just said “Yikatong” until someone nodded their head. For the record, I got mine at Sanyuanqiao (Sān Yuán Qiáo / 三元桥) station, but quite a few others sell them as well. I haven’t found a list of Yikatong vendor stations anywhere, so you might need to do a bit of legwork until you hit one.
The card itself costs 20 RMB and you need to put at least 10 RMB on it.
