BEIJING, October 12 – China is planning to build a high altitude airport, the nation’s second highest, close to the famed Shangri-La region in the Himalayas which will allow the outside world easier access to the picturesque area.
The airport is scheduled to be build in Garze, China’s second Tibetan-dominated area in a bid to improve its link with other part of the country and overseas.
Rao Sidan, head of the Garze Tibetan Prefecture of Sichuan Province, southwest China, said the planned airport, or Kangding Airport, will be 38 km from the county seat of Kangding County with an altitude of 4,200 meters.
The airport will be the second highest after Bamda Airport in Tibet Autonomous Region, which stands at about 4,300 meters in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, he said.
Total expenditure for the airport is estimated at nearly US$100 million, Xinhua news agency quoted the official as saying.
Rao said the planned airport will boost local social and economic development of the prefecture after its completion as the region is trying to attract tourists from other parts of the country and overseas.
The airport is important for the hilly prefecture because it is difficult to reach the area by road.
Located in Hengduan mountainous region in eastern part of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Garze is rich in tourism resources.
The region has been the core of the ecological tourism zone known as Great Shangri-La promoted at home and abroad by Sichuan and neighbouring Yunnan Province and Tibet Autonomous Region.
