Beijing Capital International Airport: Finding your way around the dragon

The new US$3.5 billion Terminal 3 at the Beijing Capital International Airport is not only the second largest airport building in the world, it also has an unusual design. Unlike other airports which generally follow similar and fairly straight forward designs, Terminal 3 is shaped like a dragon with domestic flights located in the dragon’s “head” and international flights located in the dragon’s “tail.” Hence, visitors may find navigating around the airport a daunting task while official English language resources available online still remains limited (For example: Airport maps on the official airport site are in Chinese).

However, Air China has posted a 10 minute video guide on Youtube.com that visitors to terminal 3 may find helpful. The video itself has no voice narration but it does contain plenty of English subtitles along with images to help visitors at least familiarize themselves with the airport layout.