In late October this year, Beijing welcomed its first-ever coffee shop, which is located at Guomao Station on Line 1. After four years of exploration and efforts, the city's subway services now offer a wider range of amenities for public use, rather than just convenience stores.

Currently, commuters can pick up hot breakfasts right inside some of the stations, youngsters can find "mystery boxes" containing trendy toys on the go, and travelers and business people can find luggage lockers at several stations. Numerous power banks are available for rental at more than 300 stations, easing a lot of travelers' anxiety about their low battery percentages.

Shifting its focus from convenience services to wider public services, Beijing Subway has been maximizing the stations' commercial potential to infuse every trip with greater warmth and ease.

Next to Entrance/Exit C of Jintai Xizhao Station on Line 10, the "Meituan Shiguangji" (美团食光机) breakfast cart begins serving at 7:30 sharp every day. There are insulated boxes filled with steaming breakfast items, offering everything from stuffed flatbreads to soy milk and rice porridge. Currently, the "Meituan Shiguangji" food carts can be found at 31 subway stations, with the best-selling ones each recording 200 orders per day.

Guided by passengers' needs for convenient and diversified services, Beijing Subway launched pilot operations of six business formats for user-friendly services in March 2023, which concern flower vending cabinets, food carts, "urban living rooms" (public rest areas), "small stops" (spaces for commercial campaigns), luggage lockers, and shared power banks, respectively.

Tailored to the differences in the positioning of different stations, Beijing Subway has refined and differentiated service categories.

Nowadays, the lines operated by Beijing Subway Limited have 102 convenience stores, more than 1,900 commercial self-service machines, 30 flower cabinets, and 35 food carts. A total of 171 luggage-locker units have also been installed across 76 stations, including the stations in areas with cultural tourism attractions and in commercial districts, as well as transport hubs. A total of 678 shared power banks are now available at 330 stations on 17 lines. Multiple lines now offer 207 free drinking-water dispensers, with commercial equipment coverage reaching 97.25 percent of all stations. In the first half of 2025, convenient facilities, including those mentioned above, served passengers over 10 million times, indicating a year-on-year increase of more than 20 percent. These changes show that a broad and well-connected network of in-station public-service amenities has been formed.

(Source: Beijing Daily App)