The Beijing airport is huge and brand new and most of the staff there appear to speak some English, they are probably required to take classes in preparation for the Olympics. It is so big that you have to take a train to get from the arrival building to the departures building. All the signs have English on them as well.

Indoors & Outdoor views:

I caught a plane from Vancouver to Beijing, and then from Beijing to Chongqing. I did not know any Chinese at all, and I found the whole process very straightforward. The airports have Chinese and English signs for everything, and a lot of the airport staff also speak English, especially in Beijing (due to the upcoming Olympics of 2008).

Arriving in Chongqing, it is pretty easy to catch a taxi, but you have to speak the Chinese name of the location that you’re staying at. Or you could have the Chinese characters written down that you can show. Taxi rates are pretty decent, getting from the airport to a place closer to the actual city was only about 40-50 yuan.