New terminal ready for Olympics

The newly built Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International airport has been built to meet and greet the influx of visitors expected for the Summer Olympics. An estimated 17,000 athletes and officials willflock to the city, but before they get to the venues, they'll touch down on a world class terminal.

It's the first building in the world to break the one million square meter landmark, and by 2020, it will accommodate about 50 million passengers a year.

The Terminal 3 expansion project cost a whopping 27 billion yuan -- or 3.65 billion US dollars -- but it only took less than 4 years to be designed and built 8 months ahead of the big event: This year's 2008 Olympic Games.

A press conference was held on Tuesday to announce the first two phases of the terminal's operation.

Dong Zhiyi, General Manager of BCIA said "After 3 years and nine months of construction, Terminal 3 will start operating in three days, midnight on February 29th. And the Beijing Capital International Airport will be the first airport in China to have three terminals and three runways."

The second phase of operation will begin in less than a month, on March 26 when the remaining 20 domestic and international airlines move in, bringing the total to 26.

A high speed train connecting Terminal 3 to the city's Donzhimen station is still under construction, but officials said that all transportation routes will be completed by June this year.

The new APM system, short for Automated People Mover, can move up to 80 km/per hour and connects the north and south terminals in just 2 minutes.

But not everything is made of stainless steel. A bit of the old has been recreated inside the new.