Beijing Airport

[adrianlondon]

As far as I can tell from news articles, the new terminal at Beijing's airport is open.

There's also meant to be a high-speed train linking the airport to the city. Is that open yet? If so, where does it go to?

Taxis are fine, but usually get stuck in traffic once they hit the 2nd or 3rd ring. Although there's currently an airport bus, it often takes a rather wriggly route to get to various destinations. And, of course, gets stuck in traffic.

[cdn_in_bj]

As far as I can tell from news articles, the new terminal at Beijing's airport is open.

Yes, it officially opened on Feb 29th. There was a contest that morning to see who was the first arriving passenger.

There's also meant to be a high-speed train linking the airport to the city. Is that open yet? If so, where does it go to?

This is not yet open but once it is running, it will link to Xizhimen station.

I'm quite excited by all of the new subway lines opening in the next few years. The traffic here is getting noticeably worse with every passing month.

[skylee]

I used the Beijing Airport a few months ago and I think the smell was quite impressive. There was this smell of the floor wiped by dirty mops. I wonder if anyone notices it or if it was my imagination.

I wish the airpot bus service could be upgraded (better buses, etc).

[roddy]

I thought it was going to Dongzhimen, not Xizhimen.

[ChevanY]

Yes the airport train will link to Dongzhimen. This is why the station has been under construction in the past few months and was actually closed for a few weeks around december/january (don't remember exactly). If you go to Dongzhimen station you can tell something is definitely going on there, there's temporary fences and construction stuff everywhere! I live in that area but fortunately Yonghegong is a bit closer for me so the shut down Dongzhimen had no impact on my day to day travels

[Shadowdh]

Not only is there a bunch of construction going on at Dongzhimen now but they have information "desks" (well at least one anyway) with little old guys (again at least one) who will tell you what you want to know. I thought the one who helped me (I had actually just stopped near it to look at the map on the news agents wall) spoke english well and he took me right to the place I was going anyway, plus I was interviewed (and had the obligatory piccie taken) by some young fella for one of the papers. If the service I received is any indication of what is normal then I think many non Chinese speaking foreigners will find it very helpful.

[adrianlondon]

Getting to to the BNU area (which is the place I'd rent an apartment if/when I go back to Beijing) might still be quicker by Airport Bus then, getting off on the 3rd ring and walking down.

[ChevanY]

Either that or take the new subway line from airport to Dongzhimen (if it's open by then) and change to line 2 for Jishuitan and walk or taxi from there. All in all it would take about the same time I think and you'd have to change trains with your luggage which could be very painful depending on the time of day (ie rush hour). Might be cheaper to use subway (subway is 2Y, airport buses are 16Y).

[roddy]

Might be, might not. The airport's rail link (Line L1) will stop at Sanyuanqiao on the third ring road and you could transfer to a third ring bus there. Or if you were going to the south end of the BNU 'block' - for example, if you rent one of those apartments in the nice big building just north of Jishuitan, the one that arches over the canal - then you might be better off going to Dongzhimen, then taking Line 2.

Airport bus will quite possibly make more sense though as it won't require a transfer, except perhaps a taxi hop at the end.

Edit: must type faster . . .

[cdn_in_bj]

Yes, you guys are right - it's Dongzhimen, not Xizhimen. I always get my east-west mixed up, even in Chinese it seems!

[adrianlondon]

in the nice big building just north of Jishuitan

Yeah, that's my preferred location at the moment, although my current plans to return to Beijing are timed to be AFTER the Olympics ;) Unless I find decent work (by that I mean high-paying IT consultancy) which is unlikely.

Thanks for all the info.

[imron]

Might be cheaper to use subway (subway is 2Y, airport buses are 16Y).

Is the airport line also going to be 2Y? If so, that would be great! However most other cities with train/metro link to the airport seem to charge a significantly higher amount for the airport line. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised though (like I was when the dropped all metro prices to 2Y).

[cdn_in_bj]

Is the airport line also going to be 2Y? If so, that would be great! However most other cities with train/metro link to the airport seem to charge a significantly higher amount for the airport line. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised though (like I was when the dropped all metro prices to 2Y).

Same here... I haven't heard anything about it costing only 2Y.

[self-taught-mba]

2Y was meant to be a temporary measure meant to test the system by flooding it with extra passengers in preparation for the Olympics.

From the lips on someone on the organizing committee.

[cdn_in_bj]

Yes, you can see on the new ticket machines they've installed at certain stations (but are not yet operational) that there are ticket prices ranging from 2Y to 9Y.

[roddy]

Took a quick trip to Beijing over the weekend - airport impressions:

I was actually flying out of the old Terminal 2, so didn't get a chance to really use the new Terminal 3. However for my flight out I had some time to kill, so got dropped off at the new building to have a quick look - very impressive, massive space, lots of light, felt very organized. Looked about for ten or fifteen minutes then took the free bus to T2 - took about ten minutes. There's a fair distance between the two, but the shuttles seemed to be leaving every five or ten minutes.

Beijing Airport now has electronic check-in if you only have hand luggage, but watch out - it took me a while to get it to work as it wouldn't take my passport number (I suspect it's only geared up for ID cards / Chinese passports?) and it took a few attempts to figure out which of the numbers on my ticket was the e-ticket number, as the printing was off kilter. Choose seat, print your boarding pass, and you're done, pretty handy. They also had the same terminals in Dalian, but I gave up after failing with the passport number in that case.

Anyway, after checking there weren't any major queues at security - there weren't - I hopped back on the bus to Terminal 3 to avail myself of the facilities - specifically Burger King. Double Whopper meal, RMB34, pretty decent for airport food I thought. Back on the bus to Terminal 2, through security and arrived at my gate just as the plane was boarding.

There's now a Subway airside in Terminal 2 - I passed it en route to gate 26. Also, in Terminal 3 I was able to pick up a 'Free Wireless Network' from somewhere, but didn't get a chance to use it - the lift doors closed . . .

Anyway, very quick and easy to get between the two terminals - I reckon if you were flying out of T2 and had a spare 30 minutes you could nip to T3, get a takeaway BK, and head back to T2 easily. But don't blame me if you miss your flight.

[gougou]

One thing to note is that check-in in terminal 3 closes 45 minutes before departure, which I found out the hard way the other day when I arrived at T2 precisely 30 minutes before departure - only to find out that my flight was leaving from T3.

Also, T3 is huge. I arrived there once, and they dropped us off at the very last gate (even though all others were empty, maybe they're trying to ensure that the carpet wears off evenly?), from where several people hadn't made it to the conveyor belts in 20 minutes' time.

I never had trouble using the self-service check-in with a foreign passport. Probably roddy just got blacklisted or something

[cdn_in_bj]

Wow, they have a BK in the new terminal?? That rocks!

[roddy]

Yep - actually I'd say the new terminal might function as one of Beijing's nicer shopping malls, if you can handle the taxi ride and prices . . .

Can't think of any reason why I would have been blacklisted from electronic check-in. There was that incident a while back with the bag of live crabs though . . .

[cdn_in_bj]

The new T3 is indeed massive - I read somewhere that it's the world's largest terminal, and is larger than all of Heathrow's 5 terminals put together!

If you're departing from T3, you'll definitely need to allow yourself more time to get to your gate.