Beijing Olympic Games 2008

Beijing opened a huge new $3.6 billion, Norman Foster designed airport terminal on Friday ahead of the expected influx of millions more visitors coming to this summer’s Olympic Games.
The impressive new terminal’s nearly 3-km (2-mile) long concourse, which is divided into three sections and connected by a shuttle train, will boost capacity at the airport to 76 million compared with the 52 million who used the airport last year.
Six airlines will use Terminal 3 initially, including Sichuan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Qatar Airways, Qantas Airways , British Airways and El Al Israel Airlines.
More will move in from March 26, including Air China, Lufthansa , Singapore Airlines and other Star Alliance members, as well as Emirates and Air Canada.
The terminal is designed to look like a dragon, complete with triangular windows cut into the ceiling as though they were scales.
A train will zip people downtown in just under a quarter of an hour and the high-tech baggage system will handle 19,800 bags per hour.
The terminal also has special bridges to handle Airbus’s giant double-decked A380.
It has almost double the number of boarding gates of the old terminals and nearly 300 check-in desks. The terminal has been build to maximize the use of natural light, with walls of glass.

from: chinadaily.com.cn