Eric's Beijing Diary

Took Coffee and her friend to the airport this evening. They are on the way to Tanzania to do a volunteer project with AISEC. I had a student at my previous university who was involved with that organization, and I thought it might be good for these students also. This organization is really growing. I have concerns about it, because it's getting so large that it might be hard to regulate, but the way it is set up is quite impressive. It gives students a chance to be involved in a volunteer project in another country and culture with a very minimal investment. For both Coffee and her friend, this was their first time to fly internationally, so I wanted to go with them to make sure they got to the right place. It turned out to be a good thing, because Capital Airport has become a much more complicated place than it was when I came here ten years ago. At that time there were two terminals--Terminal 1 for domestic and Terminal 2 for international. But with the addition of Terminal 3, it has gotten confusing, because there are international flights at both Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. You really do have to know which terminal you are flying out of. Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 are connected by a long hallway. If you have an extra ten minutes and you don't mind walking, you could even consider them part of the same terminal. But Terminal 3 is in a completely different place, although there is a special airport shuttle that runs between the terminals every 10 minutes, so it is manageable if you know what you're doing.