In 1991, Hong Kong set out to make history with its gleaming Norman Foster-designed international airport by leveling two islets off the tip of Lantau Island totaling 4 sq km and reclaiming 9.38 sq. km of the adjacent seabed. The airport opened in 1998, record time for construction of such a massive project, which included the biggest enclosed terminal in the world at the time. Since then, travelers on the fast, smooth and silent airport train can look out the windows and see the airport complex continue to expand into the surrounding waters to include a forest of office buildings, hotels and other structures.