5 new subway lines in Beijing

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 Thursday.

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 5 million passengers a day.

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

In August, a 10-day traffic jam stretched nearly 40 miles on a highway outside Beijing, forcing some drivers to sleep on the asphalt.