(Los Angeles Times) - It's a huge building, bigger than the Pentagon and a whole lot less clunky. It's expected to handle more passengers than any air terminal in the world. It was built fast.
Beijing's new international air terminal, which opened Friday in time for the Summer Olympics surge, attracts and embodies superlatives. It also embodies the new China, a country racing headlong into the future fueled by an economy on fire.
The airy glass-and-steel structure, even at two miles long and half a mile wide, raced from design to takeoff in four years. Most airport projects take a decade or more to complete and usually involve lengthy reviews, detailed assessments, planning committees, public hearings and environmental impact statements.
For many countries increasingly worried about how competitive and fast-moving China is, this $2.8 billion project provides one more reason to fret. China's authoritarian system can certainly move. At its peak, the construction site had 50,000 workers toiling around the clock.
Elsewhere across China, skyscrapers sprout, highways unfurl and dams appear at breakneck speed, cutting through neighborhoods and displacing millions of people in the process. This terminal is among about $40 billion worth of projects being built in Beijing alone in advance of the Games, which start Aug. 8.
"Most Western politicians wouldn't admit agreeing to that system, but they're very jealous," said Rory McGowan, Beijing-based director of global engineering company Ove Arup & Partners, which worked on the project. The Chinese "can react to decisions four or five times faster than we can (in the West) because China runs the way it does."
China has a long history of awing visitors with structures that evoke size and power epitomized by the Forbidden City. The new Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport is a modern counterpart, the gateway to a new China.
"This is the front door of China," said Brian Timmoney, Beijing-based partner with architect Norman Foster, who is based in London.
The $2.8 billion terminal, designed by the Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute and Foster, measures 1.3 million square meters in area, astride a runway able to handle new Airbus A380 "Superjumbo" aircraft.
It's got all the bells and whistles, including "barrier-free" facilities for the handicapped, floor tracking to guide the blind and multi-denominational prayer rooms in an officially atheist country. It's also got baby-changing facilities and 26 smoking rooms with advanced filtering systems, in short, a whole lot of stuff you probably won't see again during your stay in China.
The terminal's designers put a premium on air, light, greenery and distinct Chinese characteristics. The sloping roof is meant to evoke a dragon with triangular skylights resembling scales. Feng shui principles were incorporated into the design, while the interior is decorated in colors that hold special meaning for Chinese.
"Feng shui has a scientific and a superstitious side," said Shao Weiping, principal architect with Beijing Architectural Design. "We used the scientific side."
Passengers entering the terminal are met with a blaze of red, reminiscent of celebration, good luck, joy and enthusiasm. By the time you approach your gate over a mile distant, preferably using an automated train, the interior has shaded to yellow. This color is associated with royalty, mother and earth, which presumably act as a calming influence for your boarding experience.
Chinese officials tried to be diplomatic when comparing the terminal's rapid construction schedule to London's Heathrow's Terminal 5, Europe's busiest, for which planning took five years.
"Britain is relatively more forward-looking in planning," Dong Zhiyi, the airport's deputy general manager, told reporters, before adding: "The speed with which (the terminal) was built shows our capabilities."
China's air traffic has exploded as its 1.3 billion increasingly affluent citizens are allowed to travel, even as the world flocks to its doors.
The new terminal will boost the airport's capacity by tens of millions of passengers to 82 million passengers annually, a target planners originally expected to hit around 2015, but now believe could come years earlier. A second international airport already is under consideration.
The new terminal also is expected to change the region's competitive equation by allowing China to handle more of its own passenger and freight traffic, which has overflowed its borders to the benefit of new airports in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong.
The new terminal also will allow Beijing to negotiate more nonstop services with North American hubs, as San Francisco, Seattle, Houston and Dallas all seek a bigger share of the trans-Pacific market.
The new terminal was built in modules with many systems pre-fabricated at the factory to ensure better reliability, although builders admit privately that work quality is always a concern.
The rapid expansion of China's aviation system has led to safety concerns. China has had no major accidents in the past three years, but before that suffered several attributed in part to rapid growth.
"It's a big issue," said Leithen Francis, Singapore-based deputy Asia editor with Flight International, a trade magazine. "They may have 1.3 billion workers, but when it comes to skilled maintenance engineers, air traffic controllers and pilots, they're experiencing shortages."
The danger, experts say, is that people get promoted too quickly without garnering years of experience. Recently departed aviation minister Yang Yuanyuan made safety a priority, including the introduction of a "no blame" system for workers who pointed out problems, but it remains to be seen whether his successor Li Jiaxiang will follow suit.
Airport planners hope their facility's $250 million state-of-the-art luggage handling system won't suffer the problems seen when Denver and Hong Kong opened their airports in the 1990s. Issues included malfunctioning computers, derailing baggage trains, and angry passengers.
Others with ties to the airport already are expressing concerns about all the changes. Starting in April, a new light rail system will link the airport to the city center in 20 minutes.
"That and all the new subway lines will really hurt us," said Zhu Mingsheng, 43, a taxi driver of seven years. "As it is, I'm hardly making any money. I'm thinking of quitting soon."