The Terminal 3 of Beijing International Capital Airport, one of the largest in the world with 986k square meter in total floor area, in many ways resemble that of Hong Kong International Airport. After all they are both designed by the same British architech, Norman Foster.
T3 is made up of a main passenger terminal (Terminal 3C), 2 satellite concourses (T3D and T3E). Check in is at T3C and all international flight arrive and leave at T3E. Connecting between them is the intra-terminal train.
My experience as a frequent traveller to Beijing has been one marred with many glitches especially with the intra-terminal train.
In several occasions since March 26, 2008, the train I boarded stoped mid-way and took unjustifiable long time to travel the 2 km stretch between T3C and T3E. In one occassion, there was smoke coming out from the electric cable powering the train.
In all incidents, there was not a single announcement to explain the cause or to comfort the passenger anxiety.
Another disappointment with the T3 is how the boarding gate is numbered. It is not intuitive for the passengers, especially those who are in a hurry, to locate the exact boarding gate. While I understand the logic of the numbering but the design of the airport boarding gate that spread out to two large and distant wings and the numbering system employed made it very un-traveller-friendly.
Lately, my departing fligts have suffered significant delay in departing averaging 1 and 1/2 hour due to air traffic control. I don't know if this is related to the tighter security imposed or attributable to other causes.
Few major improvements are noted: checking in is much quicker and there are a lot more immigration counters at traveller's service. They typically offer the travellers their best smile. Hope this will be continued after the Olympic game.
At the security check, one of the most stringent after USA, the staffs entrusted to do the security check are all young damsels. This is a big plus to mostly male travellers. One of my colleague comment that he does enjoy the brief body search which he finds rather sensual.
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Dear KY,
I was on an official travel 3 years ago when the pleasures of the security checks were particularly noted by the visiting senior officials. I notice nobody ever complains too much about being searched in Chinese airports.
May be it has something to do with growing up with an authoritarian state, but I suspect this has much to do with Chinese lateral thinking. If any process is annoying but unavoidable there are always ways to be found in human nature to soften the impact. I wonder how quickly this idea will spread through the world.
The trouble with many experiences in China in recent years is that the hardware has often developed faster than the software i.e. the human systems necessary to run it.
It is often no trouble getting a cast of thousands. In major events one sees staff milling about everywhere often looking bored but try asking for anything that requires sponteneous reaction or on-the-spot guidance often stumps the staff on the spot. The reaction is often to make a phone call to ask for an answer somewhere else.
Ironically, these often only happen at work because the same people can be quite resourceful and creative outside work. This top-down phenomenon often leads to poor customer relations and hampers the ability to learn and respond quickly to problems.
But from a Southeast Asian perspective, thank goodness for that because that is one area where people from warmer (literally the climate) countries of the world has a global competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate.
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