Kunming Changshui International Airport
Facts on KMG
Zheng He commanded seven treasure voyages across the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433 under the Yongle and Xuande emperors, carrying Ming political and commercial influence as far as the Swahili coast of Africa. A eunuch and favourite of Yongle, he also served as commander of the southern capital, Nanjing.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport is named for Changshui village, one of two hamlets (with Huaqing) in Dabanqiao subdistrict of Guandu district where it was built, about 24.5 km northeast of central Kunming. The name was made official on 29 August 2011, ten months before the airport opened.
Source: Wikipedia (Chinese)
The airport nearly carried a very different name. When construction began in 2009 the facility was reported to be called Zheng He International Airport, after the Ming dynasty mariner, explorer and diplomat — a local son, born Ma He to a Muslim family at Kunyang, Kunming, in 1371.
Source: Wikipedia
Changshui sits about 2,100 m (6,900 ft) above sea level in graded mountainous terrain — high enough that its runways are unusually long for the traffic they carry. The east runway measures 4.5 km (14,763 ft) and the west runway 4 km (13,123 ft).
Source: Wikipedia
The main terminal covers 548,300 m2 (5,901,852 sq ft), the second largest terminal building in China. It has 66 gates with jet bridges out of 88 gates in total, and was designed by the architects SOM with the engineering firm Arup.
Source: Wikipedia
Seven twisting ribbon-shaped steel box girders arc across the central hall, doing double duty as roof structure and ornament. They use roughly 29,000 tonnes of steel, and the count is deliberate: seven bands for 'Colourful Yunnan', the province's own nickname for itself.
Source: Wikipedia (Chinese)
The airport it replaced, Kunming Wujiaba, was built in 1922-23 as a military airbase under the Yunnan warlord Tang Jiyao, and in 1941 became the base of the Flying Tigers — the American Volunteer Group led by Claire Lee Chennault. Wujiaba closed the night Changshui opened.
Source: Wikipedia
Instead of a rubber-tyred people mover, Changshui runs trams nicknamed 'Green Dolphin' between its terminal and satellite concourse. The line is 1.88 km long, runs almost dead straight along the terminal axis, and passes partly beneath an aircraft taxiway.
Source: Wikipedia
The build was fast and costly in lives. On 3 January 2010 seven construction workers died when an incomplete overpass collapsed, and on 28 June 2011 a collapsing tunnel injured eleven more. The main terminal was finished the following month.
Source: Wikipedia
In 2014 Kunming became the first aviation hub in China to install an Airport Collaborative Decision Making system, sharing live data between airlines, controllers and ground crews to cut delays and fuel burn. By 2017 its on-time performance had reached 85.3 percent.
Source: Wikipedia