China, Beijing Capital International Airport

It's crowded, people look at you like you are an alien if you ask for help, hardly any of the airport or airline personnel can communicate sufficiently in English.

People push in, the ground staff of the terminals do nothing to ensure order, at arrivals the people waiting block the gates so that passengers have to push and wait to get through. Airline regulations are not communicated well. A stressful, tiresome and very frustrating experience.

This was supposed to be a stopover in Beijing Int'l airport on my way to Melbourne, Australia. I flew via Air China (another poor experience) from Dubai because of its $600+ price tag. People (passengers)had no concept of lines & waiting for one's turn while 90% of the staff of that INTERNATIONAL Airport don't know how to speak English. Helloooo.....this is an INTERNATIONAL airport??? First, I got caught up in Internatonal Transit check coz it was only staffed by 1 person. Then I got lost looking or my gate coz no one understood my question & the departure gate that I was supposed to go to was on the other side of the building that one has to take the train to get there. So of course, I missed my flight! But the horrible experience was from the Duty Managers who are supposed to assist passengers. I was treated like some scumbag; interrogated over & over again why I missed my flight; tossed back & forth between one counter to the other. I was told that there was no available flight the following day & that the next flight was a week later! Ok.....so then I asked how to get a visa & was not given any help but was told that I will pay the penalty of 500 RMB for each day of stay there without any visa!!! Out of frustration, helplessness & anger, I broke down & cried in front of the international ticketing staff who ended up negotiating a next day flight to Sydney for me (although I was told 3 hrs earlier that there was none.) But this re-route had cost me another $600 + overnight stay @ Airport Garden Hotel (which is another terrible experience)+ meals = $1000. The following day, upon check in, I almost got in trouble again coz the new ticket that was issued for Beijing-Sydney only allowed 20 kg of bagage allowance while had I not missed my Melbourne flight,I was allowed 40 kg of checked thru baggage. So off I went to the same indifferent Duty Manager. I had to keep arguing that in the end, he gave the OK for it.

I've been a traveller for 20+ years & I have never had this horrible experience from an International Airport! Never again! Stay away from having any stop overs at Beijing Airport!!!

The new terminal Beijing Capital International Airport is separated into two areas, the international terminal accessed by a train ride which - if you're not careful - will leave you on your bum due to it's jerky starts, stops and turns. This airport is huge, so expect very long walks.After 5:00 pm on most days, the airport scheduling disintegrates into chaos. Morning flights are usually OK, but afternoon and evening flights are nearly always delayed - especially domestic.

It's less crowded than the old airport but very hot inside. No insulation and no glazing on the huge glass windows plus a red metal roof make for a building that is virtually impossible to keep cool in summer. Long walks and huge immigration queues. Despite being new, probably one of the world's worst airports after Heathrow and New Delhi.