BEIJING — Beijing showed off its new multibillion-dollar airport terminal last week — a mammoth structure of glass and steel with a gracefully sloping roof the owners said is meant to impress visitors to China's capital for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Terminal 3 at the Beijing Capital International Airport is a centerpiece project for the Olympics designed to relieve the overloaded airport's other two terminals and accommodate the city's rapid growth for the next seven years, executives with the airport's state-run holding company said at a tour for foreign media.

The terminal, which is scheduled to open for testing in February and full operation in July, is outfitted with a state-of-the-art baggage-handling system, a rail terminal to carry passengers into the city, and gates and a runway capable of handling Airbus' huge A380 superjumbo.

The terminal building alone cost $2.8 billion; the price tag was $4.6 billion with all the related infrastructure added in, the executives said.

The terminal is an "important non-competition venue" for the Olympics, said Zhang Zhizhong, general manager of Capital Airport Holding Co. He said it is intended to "give an excellent impression when visitors arrive at the airport."

10,000 PEOPLE MOVED

A huge undertaking, the new terminal, its runway and most of the related infrastructure will have been built on a compressed timetable in four years. In a city located near the Great Wall and undergoing a $40 billion makeover in time for next August's Olympics, the airport is an ambitious project.

Construction involved relocating 10,000 people. Some 50,000 people worked on the site at one time, and 500,000 tons of steel were used. A plane will take off or land about once every 30 seconds, according to statistics provided by the city government and the holding company.

"The scale was our biggest problem," said Yuan Xuegong, deputy commander for the expansion project's headquarters.

Designed by British architect Norman Foster, the building attempts to combine traditional architectural elements with up-to-date technology. Its red columns and muted gold roof are meant to evoke Beijing's imperial palaces and temples, while the $250 million baggage system, made by German engineering giant Siemens AG's China subsidiary, can handle 19,000 pieces of luggage an hour, the executives said.

Beijing desperately needs a new airport, with the double-digit economic growth of recent years outstripping city planners' original projections and stressing the capital's infrastructure. The airport's second terminal, which opened eight years ago, quickly reached its limits, and long lines for check-in and flight delays are common.

"If you fly in and out of Terminal Two, you know what a headache that is," said Jeff Martin, a Florida resident and project manager for Siemens' baggage handling system. "There should not be that problem here because they've done a lot of studies on passenger flows."

Passengers using the current airport have increased more than 20 percent annually, to 48.6 million last year, from 21.7 million in 2000, and the airport has risen from 42nd to ninth-busiest by passenger numbers, according to the holding company.

MORE SPACE NEEDED

When the new terminal is fully operating, the airport will be able to handle 62 million passengers, a limit the holding company expects to reach in 2015.

In the meantime, with Beijing's growth spurt to continue well beyond the Olympics, the holding company is looking for space to add another runway and terminal to the airport, and the city government has set up a committee to find a site for a second airport.

Construction of the new terminal has not been without glitches. Foster, the architect, fought with Beijing city leaders over colors for the roof — a muted gold versus a brighter hue. The 10-mile light-rail system from the terminal to the city began construction late and will not be ready for testing until July, shortly before the Games, said Chen Guoxing, the company's vice general manager.

Villagers forced out of their homes complained about inadequate compensation. In one instance, villagers hired buses to ride to the city center, 12 miles away, to protest only to be stopped by police at a suburban intersection and forcibly removed.

Zhang, the general manager, said all those relocated were adequately compensated and cited as proof that there had been no appeals to government authorities over compensation.

"The government has done a good job taking care of the villagers' employment, lives and children's schooling," he said.