11 days to go

In less than two weeks I will be in Beijing, and the first thing I'm curious about is the airport, especially the new Terminal 3, which was completed in time for the Olympics last summer. I followed the development of the airport and the other high tech Olympic buildings last summer: the "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium, the "Aquatics Cube" swim venue, the CCNN TV towers, and the high tech, futuristic "Dragon Terminal" of the airport--far beyond any US airport I can think of.

"Harmonious Airport, Dreams start from here" flashes across the screen when I Google the Beijing Capital International Airport. One source calls the airport "a centerpiece project" of the 2008 Olympics. Shaped like a flying dragon from the air, Terminal 3 covers 501 square miles, contains five floors (two underground), can handle 50 million passengers a year, and was designed for energy efficiency with natural lighting. It was, until the Dubai International Airport opened in November 2008, the largest building in the world.

After the high tech airport, our group will experience the ancient: the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, a traditional hutong neighborhood. There will probably be hundreds of tourists at these places, but I don't care--because I will actually be there.

Fun facts about Beijing: It takes three hours to drive across Beijing because Beijing is roughly the size of Belgium (LP 113). Beijing was Peking in a past life: Peking Duck Peking…

[http://gizmodo.com/393275/worlds-biggest-airport-opens-in-beijing]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/business/worldbusiness/02terminal.html]