Yang Cheng Tong
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Yang Cheng Tong, (Chinese) 羊城通 is a contactless rechargeable stored value smartcard designed for paying the travel fares in the bus, taxi, metro and ferry in Guangzhou, China and surrounding prefecture-level cities namely Foshan, Huadu, Zengcheng and Panyu. It is built and managed by Guangzhou Yang Cheng Tong Limited (广州羊城通有限公司), Guangzhou Public Transport Data Control Center (tentative English translation of 廣州市公共運輸數據管理中心) and Guangzhou Metro Corporation.
The card is also partly accepted by city merchant, zoo entrance, restaurant, parking meter, etc, as payment. With the card holder's personal information stored in the Yang Cheng Tong, further function can be applied such as access control of building and roll call in school. The system was launched in 30th December, 2001 and received a successful penetration. According to the official statistics announced by its operator, the circulation of Yang Cheng Tong is over 5 million cards and 2.2 million transactions per day. [1] The card does not accept anonymous purchase and a bank card is required for the application.
Yang Cheng Tong literally means Ram City Pass, since the Five Rams, (Chinese) 五羊 (pinyin: wu yang) statue is one of the important landmark in Guangzhou. Wu Yang Cheng or Yang Cheng are both well-known nicknames of Guangzhou city among Chinese people.
[edit] Type of card
There are different types of the Yang Cheng Tong card but their functions are basically the same.
- Standard card, sold for 80RMB and containing deposit value of 30RMB. Deposit will be refunded while returning the card.
- Memorial card, deposit not included and refund of this type is prohibited. For exmaple, the designs of these cards in 2006 are travel spots-themed, sold for 20RMB each card. Showing this card to relative spot box office, 10% discount would be offered for buying the admission.
- Xeno-card, technically they are wrist watch, key chain or cell phone lanyard which are implanted with the chip that originally used in Yang Cheng Tong card. These products may refer to the idea of Octopus watch.
- Enterprise card.
- Joint card.
[edit] Criticism
Compare to other contactless smartcards at the time, the data transmission of Yang Cheng Tong is criticized by commuters that it takes 1~2 seconds between the card and reader to complete the trading. Though the operator claims that the data communication only costs 0.5 seconds in its official site. [2]
Moreover, there is insufficient facility to refill the card value with cash. Currently there are only 2 Yang Cheng Tong customer service centers, a few 7-eleven stores and a small number of stations of Guangzhou Metro accepting the cash for recharging value to Yang Cheng Tong card. Otherwise, a bank card is required for using the automatic self-service add-value terminal located at each Guangzhou Metro station, joint bank, McDonald's restaurant, car park, etc. [3]
[edit] References
[edit] External link
- (Chinese) Yang Cheng Tong official website
