Beijing railway station (), or simply Beijing station (), is a passenger railway station in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The station is located just southeast of the city centre inside the Second Ring Road with Beijing Station Street to the north and the remnants of the city wall between Chongwenmen and Dongbianmen to the south. The Beijing railway station opened in 1959 and was the largest train station in China at the time. Though superseded by the larger Beijing West and Beijing South stations, this station remains the only one located inside the old walled city. Trains entering and leaving the station pass by the Dongbianmen corner tower. With gilded eaves and soaring clock towers, the architecture of the railway blends traditional Chinese and socialist realist influence. Generally, trains for northeast China (Shenyang, Dalian, Harbin) on the Beijing–Harbin railway, for Shandong (Jinan, Qingdao) and the Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou) on the Beijing–Shanghai railway and some for Inner and the Republic of Mongolia depart from this station. Some international lines (notably the railway line linking Beijing to Moscow and to Pyongyang, North Korea (DPRK), amongst others), also depart from this station. The Beijing Subway's first line used to terminate at Beijing railway station from 1969 to 1981. The subway station is now a stop on Line 2. More than 30 Beijing bus and trolleybus routes stop at or near the railway station. History Predecessor station The Beijing railway station's predecessor was the Zhengyangmen railway station, also called the Beijing station, which was located due west, just outside Zhengyangmen (also known as Qianmen), a gate in the city wall directly south of Tiananmen Square. The Zhengyangmen railway station was built in 1901 and served as the terminus of the Kaiping Tramway and Imperial Railways of North China, also known as the Beijing–Shanhaiguan Railway until 1959 when the station closed after the opening of the current Beijing railway station and has become part of the China Railway Museum. Design and construction To commemorate the Tenth Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1958 began the planning and construction of ten large-scale projects, known as the "Ten Great Buildings" to showcase the new outlook of the country and the Beijing railway station was amongst the projects undertaken. In late October 1958, according to the early 1950 Beijing municipal government's construction