Terminal 3: Largest Building and Airport Terminal

Beijing is set on impressing the world in August, but it's already doing that less than 6 months from the 2008 Olympics with the on-time arrival of the new Terminal 3. 

The city has yet to host what will be the largest Olympic Games in history so far, but it's already home to the world's largest building and most advanced airport terminal. 

Designed by renowned British architect Norman Foster, the expansion of Beijing Capital International Airport cost 27 billion yuan (3.65 billion US dollars) and is the first building ever to break the 1 million square meter landmark.

Before the 17,000 athletes and officials get a peek at the state-of-the-art competition venues, they'll be touching down on a world class terminal. 

Our first trip to the terminal was on Tuesday February 26, 3 days before the terminal goes into operation when the first batch of 6 airlines move in. We shot a press conference and did part of our sports feature.

The media were also invited on a tour of the empty terminal, which looks like it's going to be a shopoholic's paradise -- 85 retail stores in section C, 32 in section E. And those with an appetitie will have a hard time choosing between the 64 restaurants offering Chinese, Western and fast food selections.

The terminal is truly phenomenol. Architecture aside (it's been designed to incorporate Chinese cultural elements), the airport is meant to be welcoming and uplifting, easy to navigate and efficient in terms of saving time with the APM system - kinda like a inter-terminal transit line that can travel a 3km distance in about 2 minutes from T3A to T3B.

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

I read an interesting post from reuters.com recently: http://blogs.reuters.com/china/2008/02/21/hong-kong-v-beijing/

Having been to the new Terminal 3 on day one of operation, I can tell you that it's not just a pretty airport terminal.

FEATURE:

http://www.cctv.com/video/sportsscene/2008/03/sportsscene_300_20080301_1.shtml


 

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