If you're going to be flying in to Urumqi this summer, chances are you'll be arriving in the newly-built Terminal 3. With a price tag of 1.3 billion yuan, this international hub for China Southern Airlines should go into full operation this Saturday, March 27th, 2010.
It's interesting for me to see how the process of opening an airport goes. Over the years I've passed through Terminal 2 countless times and I've been able to watch the steel frame of Terminal 3 slowly transform into another one of China's enormous airports. It's beautiful, I admit, but the fact that it has a curved design means it doesn't fit in with the rest of Urumqi's architecture.
For those who live in China you'll understand that the words "years" and "construction" normally don't go together. I've seen 20-story apartment complexes completed in months (sometimes with disastrous results), so in comparison this airport was taking an eternity to build. Finally, it's done, and yesterday 500 mock passengers went through with mock luggage and checked into their mock flight to test the systems in preparation for opening.
As a side note, if any Chinese official happens to read this, can we PLEASE have better food options than a Best Food Burger (China's sub-par McDonald's clone)? Please?
Parking's good, but hopefully getting a taxi at T3 will be easier
The new T3 really isn't that far from T2
Don't kid yourself...no matter the airport size, this is still China
