New airport in Chongqing open for business


A plane with about 100 passengers landed at Chongqing Xiannvshan Airport in Wulong, Chongqing, on Friday morning, marking the official start of airport operations near the world-famous scenic spot. Xiannvshan, or Xiannyu Mountain, means fairy mountain in Chinese.
The airport can process 600,000 passengers, 1,500 metric tons of cargo and 6,360 flights annually.
It normally takes about three hours by car to get from Chongqing's downtown to the site. The flight from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to Wulong takes about 30 minutes.
Flights to Wulong from Chengdu, Sichuan province; Shanghai; Jinan, Shandong province; and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, have been confirmed. More cities will open routes to Wulong in the future.
Wulong has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site for its karst landforms and several major attractions, including three natural bridges, the gorge valley, Tianmen Cave Bridge, Furong Caves and Xiannyu Mountain.