China builds its large-scale future

China builds its large-scale future - International Herald Tribune: "Adorned in the colors of imperial China, with a roof that evokes the scales of a dragon, the massive glass- and steel-sheathed structure, designed by the British architect Norman Foster, cost $3.8 billion and can handle more than 50 million passengers a year.

The developers call it the 'most advanced airport building in the world,' and say it was completed in less than four years, a timetable some believed impossible. It opened in late February with little fanfare, but also without the kind of glitches that plagued Heathrow's new $8.7 billion terminal near London, which took six years to complete.

This is the image China would like to project as it plays host to the Olympic Games this summer - a confident rising power constructing dazzling new monuments that exemplify its rapid progress and its audacious ambition."