Carrabella

China Southern has just changed our flight to Beijing from Sydney, via Guangzhou, so that it now arrives at 23.50. Impossible time!
We are confident travellers on both the train and bus, (our 4th trip) and have read that the bus meets the last internal flight. But is this reliable information? Has anyone any experience please?

temppeternh

The Airport Express line will have finished an hour earlier and most of the several different airport bus routes finish by midnight. But you'll still find this one running until 1am, every 30 mins.

机场1线 to Fāng Zhuāng on the southeast side of Běijīng (60 mins, ¥24) runs down to the northeast Third Ring Road at m Sān Yuán Qiáo (Line 10, 18 mins, ¥15), then straight south down the East Third Ring past m Liàng Mǎ Qiáo (Line 10, 20 mins, ¥18), on through m Guómào (Lines 1 & 10, 40 mins, ¥21), m Pān Jiā Yuán (Line 10, 50 mins, ¥24), and m Shì Lǐ Hé (Line 10, ¥24).

JPDeM

Line 4 is supposed to be running until the arrival of the last domestic flight, not sure when this is: http://en.bcia.com.cn/traffic/airbus/airbus_No4.shtml
Lines 1, 5, and 7 run until 1am (but not in low season) while most other finish before midnight. http://en.bcia.com.cn/traffic/airbus/index.shtml
The train (Airport Express) is not an option with the last train a bit before 23h.
Remember that taxis are quite cheap.

temppeternh

Trying to answer queries here just by looking at Chinese websites is guaranteed to lead to error, as demonstrated on other occasions. In this case nothing is slower to keep up with reality than the pages of the Capital Airport website, which took a year even to acknowledge the existence of Terminal 3, the single largest air terminal on the planet.

The Chinese pages give different information from the English-language ones, so which are right? The answer is probably neither, as they differ again from what's actually posted at the stops outside the termini (which are the origin of the information already given).

You may be lucky enough to find other buses as China changes without notice all the time. But I wouldn't rely on it. Taxis tend to be dodgy at Sān Yuán Qiáo, so I'd hop off at a later stop before switching to one.

Carrabella

Belated thanks you both for this helpful information. We'll be staying at Dongsishitiao, and I found a bus which stops there, so will see how it goes,line 2.

temppeternh

Well spotted. For once the Chinese-language pages on the site agree, too. There certainly always used to be one route that ran through the night, but there was no sign of it when I last checked, and Chinese commercial bus information sites also have no knowledge of the night bus. You may be lucky (and I hope you are), but have a plan B.

Carrabella

Thank you - taxi will be plan B.

temppeternh

This may come too late, but it looks as though there may now once again be a late-night route running from midnight until after the last domestic flight has arrived. It's airport bus 12 (night Gongzhufen service). Fare (like the other services) is by distance to a maximum of ¥24. The route is straight down the Airport Expressway to the Third Ring Road then anti-clockwise around that to the west side of the city. You'd be best to alight at the first stop once you reach town (静安庄, Jing'an Zhuang) and flag down a passing taxi.

temppeternh

Belay that. I posted before I'd finished reading and translating. Ideal for you: Night bus line 13, which runs from midnight until the last domestic arrival, and actually stops at Dōng Sì Shí Tiáo, the third stop after reaching town.

Carrabella

Thank you, temppeternh! We'll ask at the airport where to catch that line 13 bus. Really looking forward to this trip, our fourth.

temppeternh

Bus stops are well signposted in the terminals, down at ground level.

There's a daytime Line 13 which goes to Wangfujing. It's not that one. It's this one:

机场13线[夜航西单线]

The key character is the first one in the brackets: 'night'.

Carrabella

Great! I'm sure we'll be fine now. What a wonderful world! I've taken a photo of the sign on my iPhone - so easy. Thanks so much, temppeternh.