Inside China’s New $17 Billion Mega Airport - Beijing Daxing

- New

mega

airport

, Beijing Daxing Airport. - At one point there were up to 40,000 workers working here. - Oh! (upbeat music) The

airport

here has become a major tourist site. It is an amazing feature at Daxing Airport. So I want to take you to visit the Chinese Garden. So here we are at the top of the airport, here the garden. (air hissing) (soft electronic music) Look at us, behind. This is the Chinese high-speed train. Every seat here looks like a first class seat on an airplane, don't you think? (upbeat music) So today I'm taking you to explore China's new

mega

airport.

Beijing Daxing Airport. At least 46 kilometers south of the city of Beijing. And there are two ways to get there by train. One travels on a high-speed train like this, the fast Chinese bullet train. And it costs about 90 yuan. You get a seat in business class like this, or 25 yuan in second class. And the second way is with an exclusive metro line, and it is about 25 minutes on the metro line. There is a button on the chair that you press. Converts into a flat bed. As good as first class seats on airplanes. I have the entire cabin here.

Business class, only five seats available. It's incredibly quiet on this train. And there wasn't much noise. And there is also very little vibration. So now let's speed up to Daxing. (upbeat guitar music) I arrived in China yesterday and I have to be honest, something is bothering me. I couldn't check my Google email, I couldn't watch YouTube, Netflix. I couldn't comment on Instagram. And in fact, Internet censorship is a huge pain in China and many other countries. The solution to overcome this is to use a VPN. So, I use Surfshark VPN to connect to another country. Then access all the content I want.

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Enter promo code SAM. You will get an 83% discount and an extra month of free subscription. Thanks for watching and this video is sponsored by Surfshark. (Door rings) Wow, that was very, very clever. They can turn the seats around 180 degrees when changing tracks and going in other directions. Here I come, Beijing Daxing. (upbeat music) British Airways, the flight behind me is the first to arrive. A foreign airline arrived at Daxing Airport for the first time today at 9:10 a.m. m. - Here we are, Sam. Beijing Daxing (foreign language speaking). The new Daxing international airport. - Hi Cristiano.

We were waiting for you! - Hey. - How are you (laughs)? - Good to see you. Finally here. And it is a great pleasure to be here with you for the opening of the new Daxing airport. The end of eight years of work in great collaboration with our French and Chinese partners. - Welcome to Beijing. - Hello. - Welcome to Daxing. - Oh! Hello hello! - Welcome to Beijing. Welcome Welcome. - Hello, no way. - First crew, welcome to Daxing airport. Welcome to Beijing. - Ni hao! - This point right here, between my feet, is the absolute center of the building.

So it is a six-armed star. The south here is international, the other four are domestic and then the north is the train station. Everything comes together geometrically right at this point. - Wow, look at this - Right in the center of the building. - Mirrors on the floor. - At one point, there were up to 40,000 workers working here... - Wow! - Three by eight, so 24 hour shifts. At one point we had 80 tower cranes. Maneuver things on site. I think, rightly, people in China are very, very proud of this building because it's only possible to do something like this incredible in China.

And one of the really cool things about one of the design features that we have here is that you can stand here, on the Earth side, all the way to the edge of the central unifying space. That brings people together. One of the things we have here that I wanted to briefly explain is the vertically stacked design of the building. So, we're standing here on this mezzanine with some restaurants and bars on the land side. And you look down into this main center canyon, which is the big national outlet canyon with all the national retail sales.

Above you have the international departures. Then the passengers cross the canyon and go to immigration, where they pass passport control and exit to the international airport, up here to the south. And then below, in this great oculus, this great elliptical hole, is immigration, where people arrive. The first thing you can do is look up and see this wonderful space that is quite uplifting and relaxing after a long flight. You see this central dome here, where we have the national flag hanging, it is a big dome that brings in light. You come from the terrestrial side, towards the aerial side, towards the central dome, and it is a space where you orient yourself.

And then you can see that there are different stripes of light coming down the individual pillars, so it becomes very intuitive how you find your way to the door. And if you look down at the docks, you'll see that you can see all the way to the ends of the docks, you can see all the individual doors. Then suddenly the airport is a sign. Although it is a very large building. It is one of the largest single volume passenger terminals in the world. It's not intimidating. It's still on a human scale. It uses this idea of ​​courtyards, which is something that comes from traditional Chinese architecture.

It uses this idea of ​​overlapping spaces, which is also quite an urban feeling. And it makes people feel comfortable. And it also makes people feel like they are in control of their journey. It's eight and a half minutes, nine minutes, from the central part of the building to the farthest door on the pier, which is quite remarkable for an airport of this size. And we also do it all without the so-called APM. We don't need one of those airport trains. One of those airport people movers. Everything is done on foot, which also makes it very sustainable.

Here, around the central space, we have these six megacolumns. You can see here, one, two, three, four and steady and six are behind us. Just with these six mega columns and a space frame technology, which is a very large space frame technology that uses steel welding spheres and hollow round sections, that is, tubes. Which has developed now and during the last decades in China. Now it's quite sophisticated technology that allows us to cover these incredibly long distances, without columns. And so what that means is that all the things that you see in here, including where we are, the retail stores, everything that's here could theoretically move.

For the next 50 to 70 years, which is the duration of a project like this. Things could be moved and replaced here without changing the character of the building, or having to gut it, or having to vandalize it. - The airport here has become an important tourist site. Watch people continuously, like a river flowing in, taking photos and selfies. They are not flyers, but simply come to enjoy the environment. China's brand new mega airport. (upbeat music) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - Here we are in level four, which is the traditional full-service check-in level with traditional check-in counters.

For both international and domestic travel passengers. But also, what this airport has, which is a great innovation, is the lower level that is dedicated to self-processing passengers who already arrive with a boarding pass and do not have bags where they can leave a bag through an automatic counter. luggage delivery. Frequent domestic travelers have their own tier below. And that really speeds up the flow of passengers. - When leaving the train station, on the ground floor, I already see many check-in counters. This is the beauty of Daxing Airport. A feature is a transport hub, perfectly connected to the airport.

So when you get off the train, you go straight to check-in, go up to the third or fourth floor, go through security, and go straight to the boarding gates. The entire experience will be perfect. Wow, when you arrive at the airport, you immediately feel that the architecture is just wonderful, incredible. There are a lot of curves here. You can see that the entire airport has a curve and feels very spacious, very bright. (upbeat music) It's an amazing feature at Daxing Airport, where here, in a straight line, 44 kilometers away, you can reach Tian'anmen Square, and then the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower, the National Stadium .

It's all a straight line. They call it the central ax of Beijing and I encourage you to come see the landmark here on the fourth floor of Daxing Airport. So I went through security on the air side, international side, here. You can cross the two bridges, then you will reach the customs and then there will be the gate area. (upbeat music) So I'm at the international pier of Daxing Airport, a separate pier, which is for the domestic pier and the international pier here. And right in front of me there is a very beautiful Chinese garden. So, I want to take you to visit the Chinese garden. (upbeat music) - Yeah, it's cute, it's really cute. - Wow, who doesn't like to have a beautiful, calm and peaceful moment before their long-haul flight? (uplifting instrumental) So this is located on the international dock towards the end of the dock.

If you have a few hours, then come here. Get some fresh air. So here we are at the top of the airport, here the garden. Hurrah! (birds singing) (uplifting instrumental) I haven't exercised in a long time. As I've shown you here, you can get some exercise, before or after your flight, here in the lounge. - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - Oh! This is a bunk bed. There are actually two lounges in the international part of Daxing airport. This one I'm sitting in is called East Pacific Lounge.

It is actually a paying room. And they hope that the priority pass will arrive later. The other room is BCS. It is also partially open. (upbeat music) What's really impressive is the bridge behind me. You can board directly from the lounge and board the plane. So when you compare Daxing with Istanbul, which opened in April this year, both are mega airports that are projected to have 100 million passengers in due course. In my opinion, both Istanbul and Daxing are new, scratch-built, 21st century airports, with a lot of good connectivity technology and good features. The new Istanbul airport is actually a long, rectangular shape built like a Turkish palace.

It is very great, however I think it is very long to walk from one end to the other. The starfish shape of Daxing Airport is quite clever. From one end to the other I walked no more than 10 minutes in total. Because of that shape of five pillars, like a starfish. But what I really want is for you to come experience both airports and share your opinion. Which one do you like the most. - (speaks quietly) Your flight, BA38, from Beijing to London. - So British Airways is the first foreign airline to leave Daxing here. Thus, at 12:10 the flight leaves for London. (upbeat music) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - (speaking in foreign language) - Hello!

Welcome aboard. Can I take a look at your boarding pass? Over here please. This cabin, the last one in the second row. - I'm not going to fly today, I'll say goodbye. You are making history here. (Laughs) First international airline... - Yes, we are. - Arrival and departure from Beijing. - Are. We'd love to have you on board, sir. - Ah, man. - (laughs) - I love you. Thank you. - I love you too. - Thank you. - Thank you so much. - Bye bye. - Bye bye. - Fantastic. (airplane hum) (happy music) (airplane hum) (happy music) (air whistle) (bell sound)