When we woke up Jex's dad had already come back from his solo exploration. He had already bought us Yikatong cards for the Beijing subway. Similar to the Octopus card in Hong Kong, the Yikatong is a contactless stored value smart card that you can use for paying for rides in the subway, bus, and even taxis. We never got to try using the Yikatong for other means aside from riding the subway, though. It costs 20 RMB to buy one card. You can load additional amounts into your card in stations using reloading machines. You can return the card, where you'll receive your 20 RMB deposit plus the amount of any remaining load in your card.
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| Photo credit: http://www.ginza-mall.com |