The new Terminal Three

Last Modified: 17 Apr 2008
By: Lindsey Hilsum

Two new airport terminals in Beijing and London highlight the differences between China and Britain's cultures.

The sleek lines, swooping architecture and huge scale of the new airport terminal are breathtaking. When we landed, a train conveyed us to the baggage hall, where the state-of-the-art system, designed by Siemens to process 19,200 items per hour, disgorged our luggage with admirable speed.

I'm talking not about Heathrow Terminal Five, you understand, but Beijing Terminal Three, opened with little fanfare a month earlier.

Rarely has the contrast between two political and working cultures been thrown into such sharp relief. Terminal Three is twice the size of Terminal Five, cost half as much and took a quarter of the time to build. More importantly, it works.

It is designed by the architects Foster & Partners to look like a dragon. The "scales" in the roof are vents, facing south-east to allow morning sunlight in winter for heating, and partly covered on top to reduce heat gain in summer. Exposed steel trusses at the side of the building run from yellow to orange to red, like a sunset.

Determined to have the terminal ready before the Olympic Games in August, the Chinese turned time to their advantage. Teams from Foster and the engineering company Arup operated in Beijing during the day, handing over to London-based architects, designers and engineers when Britain woke up eight hours later.

For several months, 50,000 building workers operated in shifts, so that construction could continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"It just wouldn't happen in the UK," said Jonathan Kerry of Arup. Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, who attempted to run the ill-fated Millennium Dome, blames meddling politicians with un realistic goals for Britain's failure on major projects.

We may say democracy matters more than development, so inefficiency is tolerable. The 200 million-plus Chinese lifted out of poverty in the past quarter-century may disagree.

Others point to the complex system of public-private financing. In China, the government decides on a project and contracts it out, with no public accountability - in fact, no public budget at all. With $1.4trn in US dollar reserves and no need to worry about voters, the government spends whatever it deems necessary.

While Britain is almost paralysed by democracy, China is in too much of a hurry to brook any dissent at all. The number of airline passengers has increased from seven million in 1985 to 185 million last year. China plans to build another 97 airports in the next 12 years.

The consultation for Terminal Five took nearly five years, longer than the entire Beijing terminal project. While London residents, environmental groups and anyone else who had a view was allowed to submit objections, the 10,000 inhabitants of 15 villages flattened to make way for the Beijing terminal were simply told to pack their bags and resettle nearby.

The authorities claim they were adequately compensated. To them, it is incomprehensible that in Britain construction may be slowed or stopped because a small group of people fears for the future of the natterjack toad or the value of personal property.

The location of a second planned airport for Beijing remains secret. It will be announced when the authorities are ready, and anyone who stands - or lives - in its way will be given no choice but to move. "Chinese people have always enjoyed a special system, under which we can resolve to pull all the forces together to achieve a major project," said Dong Zhiyi, of the Beijing Airport Authority.

While the British take a perverse delight in their own incompetence, the Chinese are so filled with national pride that they expediently forget that any foreigners were involved. Even though this was one of the most successful projects of his illustrious career, Sir Norman Foster was not invited to the Terminal Three opening ceremony.

When speeches were made, foreign companies were not even mentioned. "The construction and the operation of Terminal Three embody the diligence, bravery and wisdom of the Chinese nation," said Dong.

This past week, the International Olympic Committee said China was well ahead on completing its Olympic facilities, with the main stadium about to open and other venues already operational.

Think forward to 2012, when Britain is to host the Olympics. The price has already risen from £2.5bn to £9bn. Undoubtedly the papers will be full of tales of further cost overruns and last-minute panics.

We may say democracy matters more than development, so inefficiency is tolerable. The 200 million-plus Chinese lifted out of poverty in the past quarter-century may disagree. As may those queueing at Terminal Five, wondering if their flights will ever take off. At least from Terminal Three, the planes run on time.

This article first appeared in the New Statesman