Old Beijing emerges renewed, inside and out

She first apologized for the inconveniences caused by the airport’s US$3.3 billion expansion project and a new rapid transit system-a subway line for the 2008 Olympics. “To get rich, first build roads,” (yao xiang fu, xian xiu lu 想要富，先修路), she intoned. The Capital Airport, first opened in 1958, will have a brand new third terminal building with 120 gates in time for the Olympics’ opening next year. A new artery, the Airport North Expressway is under construction. A new subway line linking the city and the airport will be in operation next year to relieve the traffic strains caused by the influx of 2 million visitors to the Games, she said.

Our bus, No. 3 of four coaches chartered by China Travel Service, sped along the airport expressway as night began to fall and darkness zeroed in. When the bus stopped at the first toll booth, Xiao Song said the row of booths, an arch decorated with traditional Chinese cultural trappings, is China’s “National Gate” (guo men). “Welcome to Beijing,” she said cheerfully.

“Beijing today is not like it used to be,” Xiao Song said. “What you are seeing now is the New Beijing. The city has now expanded to have six rings radiating from the Forbidden City. The Third Ring, where our hotel is located, was a suburb not long ago.” Now it is downtown Beijing,” she said.

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