Chongqing is building the future: a new giant train station is making the Vatican nervous

A true construction record has been set in Chongqing, China: the world's largest railway station has opened there, a scale that's hard to comprehend. Judge for yourself: 1.22 million square meters—an area twice the size of the entire Vatican and six times larger than New York's legendary Grand Central Terminal. It took builders just 38 months to erect this behemoth, with 15 platforms and 29 tracks, capable of handling up to 300,000 passengers daily—a speed that would surely make architects in other parts of the world twitch. Now, high-speed trains fly from here to Beijing and Shanghai in just six hours, turning hours-long journeys into a pleasant stroll. It seems China has finally decided that railway stations should be more than just transfer hubs, but monumental architectural challenges that make any conventional logistics pale in comparison.