28 August
Anhui, China – Expected to be finished in 2011, construction of a new airport is launched on Tuesday in the suburban of Chi Zhou city, in the south of Anhui province in China, under the mountain Jiu Hua, one of the four Chinese sacred buddhsit montains.
According to China Daily, the new airport costs about 6 hundred million RMB (US$87.8 million) and mesures 213 hectares. It is located 20 km to Jiu Hua montain. A 2.4 km long and 45 meters wide runway and a 10,000 square meter terminal are planned to be built. It will be ready for Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s.
The airport is planned to carry on flight not only to more than 10 internal major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, but also to Republic of Korea, Japan, Singapore and South Eastern Asian countries where comes numbers of followers to Jiu Hua mountain for worship, according to china Daily.
Local goverment expects the new airport to premote the development of economy and optimise the structure of air transportation of the region. “It is estimated to receive 500,000 tourists by 2020 and 1.45 million tourists by 2040.” said Shen Zejiang, deputy director of the east China regional administration of Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Sitting in Southeast China, Jiu Hua moutain is one of the four Chinese famous buddhist mountains and is dedicated to be the worship place for Ksitigarbha, protector of souls in hell according to Mahayana Buddhist tradition. There are more than 90 temples with about 600 monks and nuns.
By Chen Yu
Source: China Daily
