China already has the biggest dam, but there's nothing very sexy about retaining water. It just built the world's longest bridge, too, but only Shanghai-Ningbo commuters seem to care. The world's biggest airport, now that's the kind of national triumphalism that turns heads. Beijing's terminal 3 covers some 1.3 million square meters, making it the largest covered building in the world, period.

Bigger than the Pentagon, bigger than the Vatican City, but still mostly empty floor space for all that, the struggle to write about what this megalith stands for without a cliché about size mattering becomes monumental...

So let's look at it from different perspectives. If you're lucky enough to fly over it just after a rainstorm, so that you can actually see it, you can appreciate the obligatory nod to Chinese characteristics evident in its scaled dragon styling, and red to yellow lighting scheme. Those less sensitive to symbolism have compared it to everything from Conan's sword to "a giant Buck Roger's banjo".

If you're of the new religion, Sustainability, before sermonizing about tiny carbon footprints and peak oil, know that T3 has been designed by fellow believers, employing a slew of "passive environmental design concepts" such as south-east skylights and an integrated control system to minimize energy consumption.

To the automorph who huffs and puffs after a brisk elevator ride, the prospect of traversing T3's three-and-a-quarter kilometers, with carry-on luggage no less, may be enough to evince a rare sweat. But beyond conveyor belt, T3 offers the APM (automated people mover) a contraption which promises top speeds of 80kph, and a trans-terminal ride of two minutes.

The speed and size paradox continues with an outrageous boast - baggage pick up within five minutes of plane unloading. The computer system has been designed to handle 20,000 bags per hour, but unless robots will be hauling the luggage from plane to conveyor belt, it's best to leave a healthy time margin for human error.

If you're one of those jet-setting execs whom underachievers envy but the wise pity, spending three days out of a week in transit, there's probably nothing an airport designer can do to impress you. But give the people behind T3 some credit for trying their best. The endless flexi-steel, space age roof is perforated with skylights, and curves have been deployed where lines would do, to avoid that nightmarish feeling of walking and walking and getting nowhere. They've also packed the place with 64 restaurants and 84 retail shops to take advantage of your trapped-consumer status.

Finally, to the Chinese nationalist ever on the watch for new benchmarks of Sino-supremacy, or just the chance to shout "Jia you! Jia you!" ad nauseum, this building was brought to you courtesy of Norman Foster, super Brit and peer of the realm, responsible for Hong Kong's feng shui friendly Shanghai Bank and the Millennium Bridge in London. And while T3 could house five Heathrows, the latter is still the busiest international airport in the world, Beijing's a distant ninth. If anyone in Zhongnanhai is reading, we humbly suggest that lightening up on the latest visa restrictions would do much to raise your ranking.