Beijing's new subway lines

Beijing has opened five new subway lines extending to the city's suburban areas that officials hope will help ease chronic traffic congestion.

Officials in the Chinese capital held a ceremony to inaugurate the lines before opening them to throngs of passengers yesterday.

The lines cost nearly $9.2 billion and spread to the suburbs in the northern and southern parts of the city. Beijing now has 14 subway lines carrying five million passengers a day.

City leaders have been trying a variety of tactics to combat traffic congestion, including capping the number of new car registrations for 2011 at 240,000, a third of this year's allotment.