AIR PASSENGERS have started streaming through China's latest architectural wonder, the gleaming Terminal 3 at the Beijing Capital International Airport.
Designed by Sir Norman Foster, the €2.4 billion air terminal is a spectacular construction and one of the biggest buildings in the world.
A golden roof slopes gently above the glass and steel main structure, with skylights dotting the top of the building, designed to let natural light into the 3km long building.
Even more remarkable is the fact that the project took just four years from design to execution.
"The design really responds to client's requirements for a world class airport with an environmentally responsible design and the need to be able to generate something special that can be modulated and built very fast," according to Rory McGowan, the Irishman who heads up building engineering at the Beijing Office of Arup, the airport's engineers.
Foster's creation is designed to wow visitors when they touch down in August for the biggest sporting event on earth, the Olympic Games.
The addition of the terminal in Beijing and a third runway will provide what is already China's busiest airport with the capacity to support the games and allow the airport to cater for up to 90 million passengers peryear by 2012.
The terminal is almost 20 per cent bigger than all five terminals of London's Heathrow Airport combined.
Terminal 3 has a state-of-the-art baggage handling system with 60 kilometres of conveyor belts that can handle 20,000 pieces of luggage an hour.
There is a light rail service which will whisk visitors the 25-kilometre distance to Tiananmen Square downtown in just under 15 minutes and the terminal is equipped to handle the giant double-decker Airbus A380 superjumbo.
"The interior has an asymmetric, curvaceous and spacious interiors but with modular features that allowed it to be built on schedule," said McGowan, who comes from Monaghan.
The terminal is three separate buildings connected by a train.
Along with the CCTV Tower, designed by Dutch superstar architect Rem Koolhaas, and Herzog & De Meuron Bird's Nest stadium, the airport is another of the towering architectural achievements that have marked the Olympic preparations.
The airy interior will have 64 Western and Chinese restaurants and 84 retail shops.