Beijing possesses multiple ring roads.
Historical context
After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, the Japanese army occupied Peking city and renamed it ‘Beijing’. The 1938 Beijing Urban Plan Outline was compiled soon after by the Japanese, emphasizing the construction of the West and East sides outside the old city of Peking, and also proposing the concept of a ‘ring-and-radial’ road layout.
During the 8 years that the Japanese army occupied Peking City, they managed to construct extensions of Chang’an Avenue, thereby facilitating transportation between new commercial districts in the western and eastern suburbs.
| valign="top" |Main functions
| valign="top" |Geographical coverage
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| valign="top" |Second ring road
| valign="top" |Historical sites, culture and politics center
| valign="top" |Old sites of Beijing city walls
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| valign="top" |Third ring road
| valign="top" |Business, finance and education institutions
| valign="top" |Central business district and residential areas
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| valign="top" |Fourth ring road
| valign="top" |Modern business and technological development
| valign="top" |Modern business and residential areas
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| valign="top" |Fifth ring road
| valign="top" |Residence and heavy industry
| valign="top" |New residential areas and industrial factories
|-
| valign="top" |Sixth ring road
| valign="top" |Modern logistics and agriculture
| valign="top" |Sub-urban districts
|}
Demographic distribution
Defined by the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, the idea of ‘central urban area’ of Beijing consists of six districts: Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai, and Shijingshan, with a total surface area of 1378 square kilometers (compared to the total area of Beijing Municipality of 16,410 square kilometers), mostly within the fifth ring road.
With only 8.4% of Beijing Municipality's total area, the central urban area has 68.7% of Beijing’s employment positions (With Chaoyang and Haidian being the highest with 19.0% and 22.6% respectively, both districts are within the fourth ring road of Beijing) and 56.8% of Beijing’s total employed population.
Layout
Beijing's road structure is influenced by the historical development patterns of its inner city, focused on the Forbidden City.
The first through fourth ring roads of Beijing are generally symmetrical and square.
Others
China National Highway 112 is a ring road which runs around Beijing through province of Hebei and municipality of Tianjin, completely outside of Beijing municipality. Although not popularly known as part of Beijing's "ring road system", it has been informally identified as the "8th Ring Road" by some road-trip fans.
Inter-ring road connection routes
There also exist many connection routes between the ring roads. The ones listed below are all expressways or express routes. Travel on these routes is often surprisingly smooth, as there are no traffic lights on them.
11 routes are under construction as of 2004.
- Xueyuan Road (N. 4th Ring Road - N. 5th Ring Road, under projection)
- Badaling Expressway (as of N. 2nd Ring Road, expressway as of N. 3rd Ring Road, constructed)
- Jingcheng Expressway (as of N. 3rd Ring Road, partially constructed)
- Airport Expressway (as of N. 3rd Ring Road, portion connecting to N. 2nd Ring Road under construction as an express route)
- Yaojiayuan Road (E. 3rd Ring Road - N. 5th Ring Road, connecting to projected Jingping Expressway, under projection)
- Tonghui River North Road (E. 2nd Ring Road - E. 4th Ring Road, under construction as an express route)
- Jingshen Expressway (as of E. 4th Ring Road, portion connecting to E. 2nd Ring Road under construction)
- Jingjintang Expressway (as of E. 3rd Ring Road, constructed)
- Puhuangyu Road (as of S. 2nd Ring Road to S. 5th Ring Road, under construction/projection)
- Jingkai Expressway (as of S. 2nd Ring Road, expressway as of S. 3rd Ring Road, constructed)
- Fengbei Road (W. 2nd Ring Road - Jingshi Expressway (after Yuquan Road exit), under construction)
- Lianhuachi West Road (W. 3rd Ring Road - W. 6th Ring Road, opened October 15, 2005)
- Fushi Road (W. 3rd Ring Road - W. 5th Ring Road, under projection)
- Xizhimen Outer Street extension (W. 3rd Ring Road (Beijing) - W. 5th Ring Road, under construction/projection)