Beijing Municipal Administration and Communications Card

Infobox electronic payment | | name= Yikatong | location= Beijing | launched= 2003 | service_1= Beijing Subway | service_2= Beijing Buses | service_3= Beijing Taxis (some)| service_4= | service_5= | service_6=
service_7= | sales_location_1= | sales_location_2= | sales_location_3= | sales_location_4= | currency= CNY | stored_value= | credit_expiry=
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homepage= http://www.bmac.com.cn/

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 Hong Kong's Octopus card, Singapore's EZ-Link, or the Oyster Card used by TfL in London, United Kingdom

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.

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, 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. At the same time, many more outlets were opened 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 was introduced on some taxis in 2006, and all Beijing taxis must accept Yikatong payment since the beginning of August 2008 [ [http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/28/content_8828061.htm Xinhua: Beijing taxi to become IC card friendly before Olympics (28th July 2008)] ] . The system is expected to be further expanded for payments of parking fees and expressway tolls.

Cost

The card can be bought against a deposit of CNY 20, and can be bought at most ticket counters at Beijing Subway stations and some bus stations. The cards can be refilled in units of CNY 10 at these counters, and by units of CNY 50 in Beijing Subway ticket machines. The deposit is used to cover non-sufficient funds for a single trip, and can 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. However, paying by yikatong card gives no discount on subway or taxi fares.

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.

External links

* [http://www.bmac.com.cn/ Official site]