Encircling the centre of Beijing, the 2nd Ring Road (二环路, èr huán lù) is just a few kilometres away from the city centre and is a convenient alternative road to avoid congestion there. One can divide the road into two parts: the original ring road (the southern part of the original ring road is now excluded from the current ring road), and the newly extended ring road. This article only covers the current (new) 2nd Ring Road.

History and Geography

The 2nd Ring Road runs close to where Beijing's city walls once stood; numerous junctions bear the old city gate's name. A small number of these city gates themselves still stand: Xibianmen, Dongbianmen, Deshengmen and Yongdingmen (which has been rebuilt). Most of the old city walls were pulled down shortly after the People's Republic of China was established in 1949.

Although it was suggested that the 2nd Ring Road was built over the old city walls, by comparing current city maps with old maps of Beijing, it has been found this is not exactly true. The road instead mostly follows the former moat that surrounded the city wall; in places, the moat survives as a canal. The 2nd ring road was completed in the 1980s.

All traffic lights were removed in the 1990s, and several new overpasses were built.

In 2001, the 2nd Ring Road was overhauled. It was fully re-surfaced, and greenery substantially increased.

Much of Line 2 of the Beijing Subway runs underneath the Second Ring Road. Many stations have exits on both sides of the road, with the exception of Andingmen.