The Subway
The subway is the most convenient means of public transportation in Beijing for various reasons. First and foremost: you cannot get stuck in traffic. With some of Beijings roads almost constantly jammed, this is worth a lot. Also, it’s no problem to take the subway even if you don’t speak Chinese. Stations are written and announced in English, and there are maps of the subway on every train. The only drawbacks: trains are often crowded, although usually not as crowded as buses during rush hour. Sometimes it can be difficult to get off the train if you are the only person and there’s a crowd of people waiting on the train platform ready to fight their way in. So far, there are only four lines in operation, but more lines are supposed to be opened until the Olympics.
Buses
The way buses are now, they are inaccessible to foreigners who don’t speak Chinese. There’s a variety of reasons why:
1. Stations are only written in Chinese.
2. Stations are announced by the person selling tickets, usually with a broad Beijing accent ( So even if you think you might recognize the sound of your station that can be a completely different story once you’re on the bus)
3. If you have a bad sense of direction, you might get on the bus heading in the opposite direction of where you want to go to.
4. It’s impossible to tell from the tourist maps where you have to transfer in case you have to take more than one bus. This can make taking a bus complicated even for people speaking Chinese.
If you’re feeling adventurous or need to take a bus really desperately, this is how you do it: tell the staff at your hotel where you need to go. Have them write down the number of the bus you need to take and the station where to get off. Then ask them to write something like “Dear Shoupiaoyuan (ticket seller on the bus), I want to go to (insert name of station here); please tell me when to get off the bus!” in Chinese for you. If you only have to take one bus, this should be no problem, unless you happen to be unlucky enough to get on one of the few buses without a ticket seller. Don’t try this when you are in a hurry. 
Taxis
There’s really no necessity to take a bus; taking a taxi in Beijing is fairly cheap and convenient. Although cab fares have risen over the last years and can be expected to go up even more until the Olympics, they are still much more inexpensive than in most Western countries. The starting price is 10 Yuan ($1.25), which will take you a few kilometers, and then 2 Yuan ($0.25) per kilometer. The great majority of taxi drivers is honest and uses a meter. Make sure to take a bilingual map or the address of the place you’re going to written in Chinese characters, especially if you’re going to one of the less well-known places.
Rickshaws
Rickshaws don’t just exist for Hutong Tours, there are regular rickshaws as well. They drive on the right lane of the regular roads, so some people find it scary to sit in a rickshaw and drive next to buses and other cars. If you need to get somewhere fairly closeby, it can be fun to take a rickshaw, but make sure that you and the driver are agreed on the price. Drivers usually don’t speak English, so again, this is something you would do for fun, not if have get somewhere really quickly.
