Appearance
Aerial view of the Capital Airport with Terminal 3 (orange roof) across the foreground and Terminals 2 (blue and white roof) and 1 (orange roof) in the upper right
A 98.3 m (323 ft) monitoring tower stands at the southern end of T3, the highest building at the airport. The roof of T3 is red, the Chinese color for good luck. The terminal's ceilings use white strips for decoration and to indicate directions. Under the white strips, the basic color of the ceiling is orange with light to dark tones indicating where a passenger is inside the building. It is light orange in the center and deepens as it extends to the sides in T3E and is the other way around in T3C.
The roof of T3 has dozens of triangular windows to let in daylight. Light angles can be adjusted to ensure adequate interior lighting. However, interior lighting in itself is sufficient for comfortable reading. Many traditional Chinese elements will be employed in the terminal's interior decoration, including a "Menhai," a big copper vat used to store water for fighting fires in the Forbidden City, and the carvings imitating the famous Nine-Dragon Wall.
An indoor garden is constructed in the T3E waiting area, in the sty