World’s Biggest Airport Opens in Beijing

Just in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China has opened the world’s biggest airport. The new Terminal 3, built at a cost of $3.5 billion USD, measures a gigantic 501 square MILES! This one building is 17% bigger than the combined floorspace of all of Heathrow’s terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and new Terminal 5.

From the air, the new airport looks like a giant guitar waiting for the God of all Guitar Heros to come down from the heavens and rock the planet. The building’s designer describes it this way:

This is a building borne of its context. It communicates a uniquely Chinese sense of place and will be a true gateway to the nation. This is expressed in its dragon-like form and the drama of the soaring roof that is a blaze of ‘traditional’ Chinese colours – imperial reds merge into golden yellows. As you proceed along the central axis, view of the red columns stretching ahead into the far distance evokes images of a Chinese temple.

The new airport is part of a series of structures that China is building for their Olympic coming out party on 08-08-08. No other country has ever spent this much money on an Olympics and I doubt any country ever will in the future. They’re making the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver look like a five and dine store. No doubt about it. To get rich IS glorious.

Check out more information and pictures of the new airport at Arch Daily.