ON THE MOVE · DAD & ELAINE TRAVEL CHINA
There was one final job before Dad & Elaine could leave Beijing.
Get to the airport.
Simple?
Not quite.
Because Beijing has more than one major airport.
And ours was:
Beijing Daxing International Airport (北京大兴国际机场, Běijīng Dàxīng Guójì Jīchǎng) — PKX.
NOT Beijing Capital International Airport (北京首都国际机场, Běijīng Shǒudū Guójì Jīchǎng) — PEK.
😬
Mix those two up and you have a considerably more exciting final day in Beijing than Dad recommends.
✈️ Elaine, You’re In Charge
Our flight wasn’t until around midnight.
So after checking out of our Motel 168 near Lishuiqiao Metro Station, Dad & Elaine still had plenty of time.
We even had one last neighborhood lunch before leaving.
👉 READ: Our Last Lunch in Beijing — Sometimes the Best Food Is Just Outside Your Hotel
Then came Elaine’s assignment:
Find us a cheap, easy and reliable way to Beijing Daxing Airport.
Taxi?
Possible.
Didi?
Possible.
But Daxing Airport is a long way south of central Beijing — and our hotel was far to the north.
Elaine studied the Beijing Metro map.
There was another way.
🚇 Metro + Airport Express.
Exactly our kind of solution.
🗺️ First: Understand Where We Were Going
Look at Elaine’s map.
Our starting point was:
📍 Lishuiqiao (立水桥, Lìshuǐqiáo)
in northern Beijing.
Our destination:
✈️ Daxing Airport (大兴机场, Dàxīng Jīchǎng)
far south of the city.
Dad looked at the map.
That’s quite a journey. 😂
But Beijing’s enormous rail network connects the two remarkably well.
Elaine worked out our route:
Lishuiqiao 立水桥
↓
Line 5
↓
Songjiazhuang 宋家庄
↓
Line 10
↓
Caoqiao 草桥
↓
Daxing Airport Express 大兴机场线
↓
✈️ Beijing Daxing International Airport
Two changes.
No taxi.
No traffic jam.
Let’s go.
🚇 Stage 1 — Lishuiqiao to Songjiazhuang
We walked 10 minutes from our hotel to Lishuiqiao Station (立水桥站, Lìshuǐqiáo Zhàn).
This station had become very familiar by now.
During our Beijing stay, we had used it repeatedly to get into the city.
Today, however, we weren’t heading into Beijing to explore.
We were leaving.
The platform sign made the first step wonderfully clear:
开往宋家庄 — To Songjiazhuang
Perfect.
We boarded Beijing Subway Line 5 (北京地铁5号线) and headed south.
🧳 One Difference Today: Luggage
Normally Dad & Elaine travel around Beijing carrying only our day bags.
Today we had:
suitcase, and backpack.
Using Beijing’s Metro with luggage is perfectly possible.
But Dad would add one practical warning:
give yourself time.
Large stations can involve long corridors, escalators and considerable walking between lines.
Airport day is not the day Dad wants to test how quickly he can sprint through a Beijing interchange carrying luggage.
🔄 Stage 2 — Change at Songjiazhuang 宋家庄
At Songjiazhuang (宋家庄, Sòngjiāzhuāng), we changed from Line 5 to:
Line 10 (10号线).
Another useful thing about Beijing’s Metro is that major interchange signs generally include English.
You don’t need to memorize every Chinese character.
But recognizing the Chinese station names can still help enormously:
宋家庄 — Songjiazhuang
and our next target:
草桥 — Caoqiao
Dad likes having both.
🚇 Line 10 to Caoqiao 草桥
Line 10 is the large loop you can see on the station diagram (see above photo).
We followed the signs toward:
Caoqiao (草桥, Cǎoqiáo).
This was the important interchange.
Because Caoqiao connects Beijing’s ordinary Metro network with the dedicated:
✈️ Daxing Airport Express
大兴机场线 (Dàxīng Jīchǎng Xiàn)
Now the journey started feeling less like an ordinary Metro ride.
We were definitely heading to the airport.
✈️ Caoqiao 草桥 — Follow the Airport Signs
At Caoqiao, Dad’s favorite navigation system appeared.
A giant arrow on the floor.
😂
大兴机场线
Daxing Airport Express
Hard to misunderstand that one.
Elaine rolled the suitcase.
Dad followed.
This is one reason Dad photographs boring things when traveling.
A photograph like this may not win a photography competition.
But for a first-time traveler wondering:
“Will I know where to go?”
this photograph answers the question rather nicely.
Yes.
Follow the signs.
💳 Something Else Dad Noticed
At Caoqiao we also saw this sign:
TAP-TO-RIDE
with:
- UnionPay
- Mastercard
- Visa
- JCB
- American Express
This is another small example of how traveling in China is changing for international visitors.
You may increasingly encounter gates that accept supported contactless bank cards directly.
However, payment arrangements and card compatibility can change, so Dad would never make airport day dependent on only one payment method.
Have a backup.
🚄 Then the “Metro” Became Something Else
Once aboard the Daxing Airport Express, this no longer felt much like the ordinary Beijing subway.
The trains are designed for airport passengers.
More comfortable seating.
More luggage space.
And considerably faster.
The Daxing Airport Express can run at speeds of up to around 160 km/h.
The journey from Caoqiao (草桥) to Daxing Airport (大兴机场) is roughly 40 km and takes only around 19 minutes.
Dad rather likes that equation.
😂
💰 How Much Does the Daxing Airport Express Cost?
For the dedicated airport line, the fare is separate from the normal Beijing Metro fare.
For the section we used:
Caoqiao → Daxing Airport
Ordinary carriage: RMB35
There is also a more expensive business-class option.
For Dad & Elaine?
Ordinary carriage.
Of course.
😂
Comfortable enough.
Fast enough.
And we were trying to reach the airport efficiently, not recreate first class before we’d even boarded the plane.
Fare note: RMB35 is the official ordinary-carriage fare for Caoqiao → Daxing Airport at the time of writing. Always check current fares before traveling.
🐼 Beijing Panda Had One Last Ride
By now, our Beijing panda had joined the family.
So naturally…
Panda got a seat with a view.
😂
Dad isn’t entirely sure Panda understood that we were leaving Beijing.
Perhaps better not to tell him.
✈️ And Then — Daxing Airport
We arrived at:
Beijing Daxing International Airport (北京大兴国际机场).
And this is where the Metro-to-airport journey becomes especially convenient.
The rail connection brings you directly into the airport transport complex.
From there, you simply follow the airport signs to the appropriate departure and check-in level.
No highway traffic.
No searching for the correct terminal from a taxi.
No wondering whether Beijing’s evening traffic will cooperate.
We were there. The journey take less than 2 hours..
🧭 Dad’s Simple Route to Daxing Airport
If you’re staying near Lishuiqiao as we were:
Lishuiqiao 立水桥
⬇️ Line 5
Songjiazhuang 宋家庄
⬇️ Change to Line 10
Caoqiao 草桥
⬇️ Change to Daxing Airport Express
Daxing Airport 大兴机场
✈️
That’s it.
The ordinary Beijing Metro portion is inexpensive; the dedicated Caoqiao–Daxing Airport section is RMB35 in the ordinary carriage.
For two travelers like Dad & Elaine, it was a very sensible alternative to paying for a car all the way from northern Beijing.
⚠️ One VERY Important Beijing Airport Check
Before doing anything else, look at your flight booking.
Does it say:
PEK
or
PKX?
They are not the same airport.
PEK = Beijing Capital International Airport
北京首都国际机场
PKX = Beijing Daxing International Airport
北京大兴国际机场
Our flight departed from:
PKX — Daxing.
That’s why Elaine was looking for the 大兴机场线 — Daxing Airport Express.
If your flight leaves from Capital Airport, this is the wrong airport route.
Dad cannot emphasize that enough. 😬
Dad assigned Elaine a task:
Get us to Daxing Airport cheaply and efficiently.
She studied the map.
Worked out the transfers.
And off we went.
Line 5 → Line 10 → Daxing Airport Express.
This is one reason Dad enjoys traveling independently around China with Elaine.
Dad doesn’t have to know everything.
Sometimes Dad’s job is simply:
“Elaine, you research.”
😂
And then follow behind with the luggage.
But there’s a more useful lesson here for first-time travelers.
Beijing looks intimidating on a Metro map because the network is enormous.
Don’t try to understand the whole thing.
You only need to understand:
where you are → where you change → where you’re going.
For us that day:
Lishuiqiao → Songjiazhuang → Caoqiao → Daxing Airport.
Four names.
Two transfers.
One suitcase per person.
One daughter navigating.
One Dad following.
And one Beijing panda wondering why everyone suddenly had luggage.
🐼😂
✈️ And There It Was — Beijing Daxing
The Airport Express delivered us right into Beijing Daxing International Airport (北京大兴国际机场, Běijīng Dàxīng Guójì Jīchǎng).
And once we came up into the terminal…
wow.
Even after spending days wandering around Beijing, Daxing made us stop and look.
Huge open spaces. Enormous windows. Sweeping white structures. Polished floors reflecting everything above them.
It didn’t feel like simply another transport terminal.
Daxing opened in 2019 and was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects with ADPI.
Its famous flowing, radial design isn’t only meant to look dramatic.
The idea was also practical: bring passengers, gates and transport connections together in a huge airport while reducing the distances people need to walk.
Dad had actually written about this airport before — because on an earlier journey, Daxing was one of our first introductions to modern Beijing.
👉 Read our earlier story: Beijing Isn’t Just a City — It’s Where China Begins to Make Sense
This time we were seeing it from the opposite direction.
Then, we had been arriving.
Now, we were leaving.
🐞 One Last Beijing Lesson
Maybe that was an appropriate way to end this Beijing journey.
Elaine’s assignment had sounded simple:
Get Dad and all our luggage from Lishuiqiao to Daxing Airport cheaply and efficiently.
She studied the Metro map.
We took Line 5 → Line 10 → Daxing Airport Express.
And several hours after leaving our little neighborhood near Lishuiqiao, here we were.
No private transfer.
No expensive cross-city taxi.
No guide.
Just Beijing’s public transport system, a bit of homework — and Elaine leading the way.
Dad followed with the luggage. 😂
And perhaps that’s the part of independent travel in China that doesn’t come across very well when you’re sitting at home studying an enormous Metro map.
At first, the map looks impossible.
Then you learn one route.
Then another.
Eventually you’re standing in one of the world’s largest airports thinking:
Actually… that wasn’t difficult at all.
Our Beijing adventure was almost over.
But first…
we still had many hours to explore Daxing Airport before our midnight flight. 😂
✈️ We Made It — Welcome to Beijing Daxing
And there we were.
Beijing Daxing International Airport (北京大兴国际机场, Běijīng Dàxīng Guójì Jīchǎng).
Metro from Lishuiqiao. Two transfers. Airport Express. Luggage included.
Elaine’s assignment: completed. 😂
We had deliberately left plenty of time before our midnight flight.
Not because we were worried about getting lost.
We actually wanted those extra hours.
Daxing is one of those airports where arriving early doesn’t necessarily mean sitting at the gate watching the clock. The terminal itself was somewhere Dad and Elaine wanted to explore.
And that became the last little chapter of this China journey — food, shops, quiet corners, some rather unexpected airport facilities… and Elaine even finding somewhere to study before our midnight flight.
But that’s another story.
ChinaTravelBUG’s Take
Getting from our little base near Lishuiqiao (立水桥, Lìshuǐqiáo) all the way to Daxing Airport looked complicated when Elaine first studied that enormous Beijing Metro map.
In practice?
Follow the colors. Read the signs. Make the transfers.
That was one of the things this trip kept teaching us.
China can look complicated from a distance.
Once you’re actually there, it often has another way.
Real Journeys. Real Stories. Real China.
See China. Understand It Better.
