Eleven major public areas in Beijing are now offering free wireless Internet access.

The areas offering free wifi include shopping centers, financial streets, technology hubs, parks and railway stations.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology listed the 11 areas on its website on Wednesday. It said that since Nov 2011, free wifi has been provided at a transmission speed of 2 Mpbs.

People can search for the wifi network - My Beijing- in covered places of the listed 11 areas, type in their mobile phone number and get a text message with a password that is valid for three hours.

The service will be expanded to cover more public places and township centers, the commission said.

The 11 areas are: Wangfujing, Xidan, Olympic Park, Chaoyang Park, Solana Lifestyle Shopping Park, Sanlitun, Zhongguancun Mall, Financial Street and Beijing, Beijing South and Beijing West railway stations.