Apart from 450 escalators, elevators, automatic trails and battery-driven cars, a kind of small train-automatic people mover has been introduced in T3 that passengers can use free of charge.

There are several hundred triangle-shaped skylights open in the roof to collect natural sunlight. They look like the scales of a dragon. The designers have given full consideration to the climate of Beijing: cold winter, hot summer, with a short spring and autumn. The skylights open toward the southeast allowing sunlight in the winter to flow into the terminal and be absorbed to the largest degree, while in summer they can keep the building cooler as well as providing natural sunlight.

Compared with other domestic terminals that mostly look heavy and thick, the roof of T3 looks simple. The pipe-shaped steel structure props up a "clear sky" that is 30 meters high. There are no complicated pipes, such as the air supply channels of air conditioners, or telecommunications equipment, which is hidden in the ceilings in the other terminals. Zhu revealed the position of the pipes pointing to square-shaped boxes. "The pipes are in these boxes, the pillars supporting the roof are empty inside for holding the pipes," he said.

The traffic web that extends to all directions is like the dragon's whiskers. The subsidiary traffic project of the T3 construction includes three highways and a subway.

Apart from driving cars, or taking taxis and buses, there will be a new subway line built connecting the airport to the city. The subway from Dongzhimen to the airport will be put into use in July. From Dongzhimen to the airport will take around 10 minutes.

There is an underground maze in the new terminal: the largest and fastest luggage handling system of the world, which cost 2 billion yuan ($281 million) to create. Its top speed is 12 meters per second, even faster than Liu Xiang, China's champion in the 110-meter hurdle race at the last Olympics. It can deal with almost 20,000 pieces of luggage every hour. The length of its channel is nearly 70 km.

It is ‘very China'

"At first sight of the terminal, you can tell it is China," said Norman Foster.

T3 is dotted with traditional Chinese elements and symbols that represent good luck for the Chinese people. All these are connected with modern technology. For example, the color of the steel structure on the roof changes gradually from bright red to golden yellow. The red color represents enthusiasm and happiness, and the color of golden yellow is the main color of the Forbidden City, representing dignity and wealth. "My inspiration comes from China's ship building and color planning," revealed Foster.

The bold usage of bright colors makes T3 different from other airports. It says in a more enthusiastic way to people: welcome to Beijing.

There are 10 cultural scenic spots designed in T3, the inspiration for which comes from traditional Chinese construction and ancient gardens. The spots provide some quiet places for passengers to take a rest and make it much easier for people to identify a meeting place. There are also hundreds of groceries and restaurants in the new terminal.

T3 makes use of an environmental control system to decrease energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

In the busy hours of the day, T3 will operate a light sensor control system. When natural light is sufficient, the terminal's lights will shut off automatically. At night, when there are not many passengers, the lights will operate by mobile sensors. In this way, T3 is expected to save around 1.6 million kw of power every year.