Six new airports will be built in central China before the end
of the decade, said a senior official with the General
Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).
The six small airports will be built in Bengbu City in east
China's Anhui Province, Yichun in Jiangxi Province, Zhumadian in
Henan Province, Yueyang and Hengyang in Hunan Province. The sixth
will be located near Mount Jiuhua, a well-known Buddhist holy
mountain in Anhui.
Airports at six provincial capitals, namely, Zhengzhou, Wuhan,
Taiyuan, Changsha, Nanchang and Hefei will also be upgraded, said
Li Yongqi, from the CAAC's planning section, at a seminar held in
this capital of central China's Henan Province.
Central regions include Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and
Shanxi. They have a combined population of 361 million. The central
regions are economically less developed as the country's eastern
region.
The Chinese government introduced a new strategy in early 2004
known as "the rise of central regions" to improve the economies of
the six provinces.
China had 147 civil airports by the end of 2006, an increase of
26 since 2000. Only 25 are located in central China, with four in
Shanxi, five in Jiangxi, five in Hunan, four in Hubei, three in
Henan and four in Anhui.
(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2007)