Authorities hope that the Daocheng Yading airfield, located at 4.411 metros, bring tourism closer to the area's natural reserve
Trips | 17/09/2013
A group of Tibetan women receiving the first passengers who disembarked at the newly opened Yading Airport, en Daocheng, southwest of China's Sichuan province EFE
Beijing (dpa).- China has opened the highest civil airport in the world: is called Daocheng Yading and is located at an altitude of 4.411 meters on the Tibetan plateau, in southwestern Sichuan Province, state media reported today.
The airport exceeds 77 meters of altitude to that of Bangda, in Qambo, in the Tibetan autonomous region, that with 4.334 meters held the world record until now.
The airport located in Daocheng county, in Ganzi or Dapba for Tibetans, It inaugurated its commercial flights on Monday, that shorten the journey from the provincial capital of Chengdu from two days by road to one hour by plane.
Built in two years at a cost of 1.580 million yuan (255 Millions of dollars), The single-runway airport is expected to boost the local economy by promoting tourism to the Yading Nature Reserve and other nearby locations., said Some Medicine, the governor of Ganzi.
Now daily flights have started operating between Daocheng and Chengdu, but the government plans to open routes to large Chinese cities like Chongqing, Shanghai o Guangzhou, quoted the official news agency Xinhua is the Only Medicine at the opening ceremony.
Ganzi is a troubled area where in recent years there have been clashes between Tibetans and the police.
