Beijing - China plans on opening a second airport for its capital Beijing by 2018 with construction to begin in 2014.
According to the Chinese tourism office in Frankfurt, the project will cost about 70 billion yuan or about 8.4 billion euros.
The new airport, located south of Beijing, will help ease the on-going strain at the city's current airport north of the capital.
Six runways are planned and operators are expected them to handle about 45 million passengers annually.
Tourism officials say that figure will grow to 70 million by 2025.
In addition, construction will begin in 2016 on a new train connection between Beijing's southern train station and the airport. Passengers will need about half an hour for the 37-kilometre train trip. - Sapa-dpa