Beijing Daxing International Airport: Designers sought to remove common airport inconveniences

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And CGTN's Ning Hong talked to some people who made the airport's innovative design possible.

It's being called the new gateway to China. Though it's a large terminal, it only takes around eight minutes to travel from its center to its farthest boarding gates.

NANCY YIN MARKETING DIRECTOR FOR CHINA ADP INGENIERIE "Our designers learned from experiences in the world's airports and saw the inconveniences some can bring to passengers, such as getting to boarding gates. So, they've made an effort to shorten the travel time."

Building such a huge structure is a challenge. Five long concourses are connected with the largest single-body terminal in the world.

GUO SHUANGCHAO PROJECT MANAGER BEIJING CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING GROUP "We weld the steel structures on the ground, lift them up, then weld them together. The margin of error is about a centimeter. It's hard work, and sometimes even dangerous for our workers."

Their hard work only makes the terminal more impressive even in terms of scale alone. Inside, the unique use of windows and ceilings makes spaces appear cleaner and brighter.

LEI SUSU TECHNOLOGY CENTER DIRECTOR BEIJING URBAN CONSTRUCTION GROUP CO., LTD "We use a high reflectance diffuse coating, which can reflect up to 98 percent of visible light. This makes the hall wider and brighter. The glass on the roof is also a special kind of glass, which has aluminum mesh inside it. This makes the sunlight shine through, but not glaring."

Six huge columns are under a cloud-shaped ceiling which towers over the largest business area ever in an airport terminal. Underneath the terminal, over a thousand rubber isolation bearings are installed in pillars for earthquake resistance.

LEI SUSU TECHNOLOGY CENTER DIRECTOR BEIJING URBAN CONSTRUCTION GROUP CO., LTD "They can reduce the required anti-seismic capacity of the terminal from eight to seven and isolate the tremors from high-speed trains passing under the terminal."

And let's not forget the travel experience. There are five gardens at the end of each concourse, covering 10-thousand square meters. This is the China Garden, with hand-painted pavilions in the open air.

NANCY YIN MARKETING DIRECTOR FOR CHINA ADP INGENIERIE "We have five fingers. It is quite easy to manage to design different gardens with different themes. This could really enhance the travel experience for passengers. It would help them be more relaxed."

The Beijing Daxing International Airport is expected to start operations in September this year. Ning Hong, CGTN, Beijing.