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| Macau |
Background:
Macau, a former colony of Portugal off the coast of China, lacked accommodations for giant aircraft until this airport opened in 1995. The strip of reclaimed land is giant for 747s to land safely on.
Why It is Distinctive:
Like Kansai & Hong Kong, engineers had to depend on reclaimed land to build an airport in this densely populated area. "In the Asia Pacific region you have plenty of mountains & then shoreline where the people live. There's not plenty of options of where you can build an airport, so in plenty of cases you are either building an island or extending an existing," Schreckengast says. A set of highways links the runway with the tiny island of Taipa, where the air traffic control tower & main terminal can be found.
