Beijing's New Airport Terminal Welcomes the World

Lots of space, improved organization, sleek transit links and staff courtesy upgrades are making it much easier to use Beijing airport, where poor service in crowded, dimly lit terminals 1 and 2 was until recently the norm. Also useful are terminal 3's numerous and well-placed signs, written in Chinese and English, and the recorded announcements on the rail shuttle within the terminal, also in Chinese and English. "Perfect Trip. Happy Departures.'' reads one sign.

If you are staying at a high-end hotel, such as Shangri-la Hotels and Resorts' China World Hotel or Shangri-la Beijing, you may also get the added benefit of an airport butler, who whisks hotel guests to airline check-in, through security and on to the departure gate or lounge. The service costs 550 RMB, about $70. I made it from city hotel to departure gate, in light, early-morning traffic, in 58 minutes.

If you don't have access to a passenger lounge -- most are clustered on level 3 -- or just want to look around, as I did, there are a number of options for working, eating or keeping yourself entertained.

For eating, there are, as mentioned, 64 restaurants, concentrated on level 3. Most departure gates are also within walking range of casual café/bars, which set out tables and chairs near panoramic airport windows braced inside with burnt-orange supports resembling bamboo sticks and outside with tapered red metal "candlesticks'.

On a mezzanine level, accessible by escalator, is an attractive business center; roofless and bordered by glass walls, it, too, exudes the transparency that Foster brought to the gleaming new building. The business center offers about 10 PCs, printers and work stations.