Terminal 3

I was last in Beijing in 2005 and as I sat on the runway of Beijing International Airport to leave the city I looked out the plane window and saw a row of 80+ construction cranes in the process of building the ambitious Terminal 3 project. Last week our plane landed at T3 and we got the chance to check it out. Staggering, in a word. High on the wow factor.

A couple of stats that speak for themselves:
- Budget: $3.8 Billion
- Considered the world's largest building at 14 million sq. ft.
- It is larger than all 5 of Heathrows terminals combined, including Heathrow's new T5 set to open this year which took 20 years to build at twice the price
- Were it an airport on its own, T3 would be the world's largest in size and capacity
- Completed in less than 4 years (How long has the new Bay Bridge been under construction?)
- 2 miles long from one end to the other
- Size of construction crew: 50,000
- Steel consumed: 500,000 tons (the Eiffel Tower is 7,300 tons)
- Concrete consumed: 64 million cubic feet
- Beijing'ers 'displaced' in order to build T3: 10,000

It's so big that it doesn't even feel like China because it's not crowded! Very cool to see.