Travel (visa-free) from Italy to Beijing. Capital or Daxing? Careful to choose the right airport

For decades there has always been only Capital. Were you going to Beijing? Were you landing at the Capital. Name certainly of little imagination. But the Chinese, in Mao's time (the airport was opened in 1958), they were hard-working people and little else. Not for nothing, what is now called Air China did not even have a real name until 1988, having borrowed it from the state agency that managed civil air transport: CAAC it was called, which stood for Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Over the years, and especially after China's opening to reform and the world promoted by Den Xiao Ping beginning in the 1980s, the Capital has grown in traffic and size. In 2009, it broke through the 60 million passenger/year wall, in 2010 that of the 70 million, in 2012 that of the 80 million, in 2016 that of the 90 million, touching the peak in 2018 with 100,983,290 passengers transited between January and December of that year.

2010 to 2019 (then Covid broke out) has been continuously ranked the second busiest airport in the world, always behind Atlanta Hartsfield. A monster, even in terms of infrastructure, since in 2008 the 'old' terminals 1 and 2 were joined by the gigantic terminal 3, a building in three blocks that put together cover a distance of almost three kilometers and that, with an area of more than 1 million 700 thousand square meters is the largest airport terminal in the world (Photo AcidBomber at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17583290).

Between the three blocks of Terminal 3, one moves via an automated train, while Terminal 3 is connected to Terminals 1 and 2 (which are across from each other) by a free shuttle bus.

Since September 2019, Capital has not been alone: on the 25th of that month. (with revisable timing given the impending global epidemic of Covid, which, moreover, had already begun to grip some provinces in China in those days), Beijing Daxing International Airport has opened its doors to passengers., equipped with well 4 runways (the Capital has 3) and of a single star-shaped terminal (Photo Siyuwj - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128929173).

One had to wait for the 2021 why the capital's new airport would enter the ranking of the world's 50 busiest airports, placing 37th with 25,051,012 passengers, before the near-total lockdown imposed in China due to Covid caused it to disappear from that ranking (like, moreover, all other Chinese airports) in 2022, a year in which it recorded the 'pittance' of just over 10 million passengers (and Capital 'made' just over 12 million).

But as early as 2023, pending official figures, things should have been much better following the country's reopening. Those planning to travel to the Chinese capital will be able to do so by evaluating the pros of each of the two airports in terms of infrastructure, distance and connections to the city, and companies flying there.

To date, the most important port of call remains the Capital, which Is located 32 kilometers northeast of downtown Beijing. It is also the only one between Beijing's two airports connected nonstop from Italy: From Rome, it can be reached daily by an Air China Boeing 787-9. set up in three classes (Business, Premium Economy and Economy); From Milan, also daily, with an Airbus A350-900 also operated by Air China also set up in three classes (Business, Premium Economy and Economy).

Non-stop flights from Italy arrive at terminal 3, which houses almost all airlines except Hainan Airlines and Skyteam alliance companies, including Air France and KLM, which use Terminal 2.

From Europe, At Terminal 3 come, in addition to Air China, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and Lot Polish, which is the only one flying at both 'Capital' and Daxing. Of the 'big three in the Gulf' (Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad), Emirates is the only one who has remained at the 'Capital,' while Etihad and Qatar Airways have preferred to move to the newer, less congested Daxing. E British Airways also made the same choice.

Daxing is in an opposite position, compared to the Capital, considering the city center, being located 46 kilometers south of Tiananmen Square.. Links to the city are, to date, guaranteed by a subway line which reaches Caoqiao Station in 19 minutes at a cost of 35 yuan (4.5 euros), with a frequency of one train every 8-10 minutes between 6:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. There is also a fast train (Intercity Railway) that runs between Daixing and Beijing West Railway Station in 20 minutes and at a cost of 30 yuan, about 4 euros.

From the Capital, the city center can be reached via a dedicated subway line called the Capital Airport Express, in operation from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. There are two stations at the airport, at Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. In the city (at Beixinqiao Station) it takes about 20 minutes to get there, and a single-ride ticket costs 25 yuan, or a little more than 3 euros.