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Wang Xuewen fondly remembers the day two years ago when his airport was checked out and approved by relevant government authorities.
"At that moment, all pressures and hardships involved in the process were relieved," he said.
In August 2003, the Ministry of Commerce ratified Wang's application and he became the first private airport owner in China's aviation industry. Wang Xuewen, 58, said he made his dream come true after a decade of relentless efforts.
Wang still has one last hurdle before his airport can open. He needs to get approval from administration of customs.
Located in Suifenhe, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, the airport, covering 130,000 square meters, will be used as a shipping center for international freight. It is small by most standards, but it has set another precedent for China's aviation industry. It will be the first airport to have an exclusive transnational air route. The route runs between Russia and Suifenhe.
Wang Xuewen said that building the airport was a long struggle that he is happy to finally complete.
"As an ordinary man with no special background, I always thought that building this airport would be no big deal," he said. "But it turned out to be very challenging. I think the ratification of its status (by administration of customs) is only a matter of time, as I believe in China's opening-up policy."
A Lucrative Opportunity
In 1987, when trade between China and the Soviet Union was renewed, Wang Xuewen went to Suifenhe to get a piece of the action. At the time, Suifenhe acted as the shipment port for the cargo between northeast China and the Soviet Union, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
Believing that there was money to be made in trade, Wang, who had been a government official for seven years, quit his job at the end of 1988 to become a border trader.
He waited for two years for a change in government regulations. He was finally repaid in 1990 when the Chinese Government loosened restrictions on the types of companies that were allowed to engage in border trade. In 1991, Wang became one of the first businessmen to engage in Sino-Russian border trade.
In the following two years, Wang bartered Chinese consumer goods for vehicles, fertilizer, wood and metals from Russia. The business earned Wang his first pot of gold within two years, a fortune worth 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million).
At the end of 1992, Wang Xuewen met a Russian pilot named Yakov who changed his life forever. Yakov asked Wang to join him in opening an airline that would run a route between Russia and Suifenhe. Yakov said that he would be responsible for all the application procedures in Russia. Wang was to pay the ensuing expenses.
Wang's initial response was negative, only because he knew nothing about the aviation industry. But the opportunity finally sold itself.
In 1993, Chinese businessmen working in Russia found it hard to travel back to China. Yakov devised a plan that could serve this market. It took a helicopter five minutes to fly between Russia to China across the Suifenhe River, which meant that one helicopter could fly back and forth five times in one hour. Ticket cost 400 yuan (US$48). With average load of 24 passengers, each flight would make roughly 9,600 yuan (US$1,159). Subtracting the hourly operational cost of 6,000 yuan (US$725), over 80,000 yuan (US$9,662) could be made per hour if all flights were booked.
Shipping cargo by helicopter could be equally lucrative. The convenience and swiftness of helicopter charters was in tune with the characteristics of border trade: small in volume, flexible and diversified. Yakov told Wang that unlike land transportation, which would always play a dominant role in border trade of Suifenhe, air transportation would be the only choice for the transportation of fresh goods. For example, it took 24 hours to transport fresh vegetables, fruit and flowers from Suifenhe to the Russian city Vladivostok over land. Air transportation would shorten the travel time to 45 minutes.
Wang Xuewen had confidence in Yakov's beliefs and liked that he had a strong political background in Russia. Wang decided to join Yakov despite his lack of knowledge about the laws and regulations governing Chinese aviation. And the 10-year effort began.
Continual Setbacks
Through Yakov's introduction, Wang Xuewen met with the Director of the Russian Far Eastern Office of the State Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) in March 1993. In two days, Wang and Yakov got a business license for their Khabarovsk Blue Sky Airline Co., the first Sino-Russian airline. In June of the same year, Russian authorities gave Wang the documents to open the new transnational air route.
According to Chinese aviation laws, a permanent airport is required in order to operate commercial flights. Approval by the air force is needed to open new transnational air routes. Wang Xuewen knew nothing about the existence of these rules. In August 1993, Wang and Yakov came to Beijing to apply to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for a new air route. They had a signed letter from the head of the SCAA in hand. Regardless, they were in store for their first setback.
Without a permanent airport and air force approval, officials refused Wang's applications and advised him to abandon the idea. Wang was shocked by the failure. Wang and Yakov returned home by train like "soldiers who lost their battle."
Wang could not fall asleep on the journey back. He had invested a large amount of money into the project and was reluctant to let it go. He came up with a new tactic. He would ask the SCAA to persuade its Chinese counterpart to accept the plan. Wang believed it would be much more effective than his efforts as an individual.
Wang and Yakov succeeded in persuading the SCAA to send personnel to China for negotiations, on the condition that Wang would pay all the expenses. This ignited new hope for Wang. Before long, the SCAA sent four delegations in succession to Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, and to Beijing to discuss the construction of a private airport. But no substantial success was achieved.
Wang recalls the frustration of staying in cheap hotel rooms charging less than US$2 while members of the Russian delegations stayed in luxury rooms costing US$200 per day. The sound of mosquitoes kept him up all night.
In 1994, Wang's fortunes began to change. The director of the Far Eastern Office of SCAA raised a possible solution. At that time, the air route from Beijing to Alaska needed to use the airspace over Khabarovsk for its flights. The request was refused by the Russian military on the grounds that there were military targets in the corridor.
The director suggested that Wang persuade the Russian military and the CAAC to trade access to the Russian airspace in exchange for the opening of an air route between Suifenhe and Russia. Russian military authorities accepted this scheme in two months. The CAAC also gave consent to the deal. Wang then started to negotiate with the Chinese air force.
In September 1995, the government of Heilongjiang Province sent an application to the Chinese military for the construction of a new civilian airport in Suifenhe and the opening of a new international air route between Suifenhe and Russia. The military region replied with approval in June the following year.
Finding the Money
Building the airport was the next task; another thing Wang Xuewen had no experience with. At the time, he thought he'd "just have to find a playground that would be big enough for several helicopters to land and take off."
Airport construction first needs to be registered with the civil aviation administration in the name of local government. Luckily, the government of Suifenhe was very supportive of such a plan. Wang started to shuffle between civil aviation administrations, government departments and military authorities.
As a chronic sufferer of arthritis, Wang, at times, could not even walk. Still refusing to give up. His determination moved many military and civil aviation officials who offered their support. In May 1998, the final approval for the airport's construction was given.
Nevertheless, with all of the official support in place Wang was still short of money for the project. Wang had given everything he had to the application, including all of his money. He was broke. According to Wang Xuewen's wife, Lu Shengjie, Wang, at one time, couldn't even find two yuan (US$0.24) for their child's bus fare to school. To make matters worse, the registered capital in Khabarovsk Blue Sky Airline Co. Ltd. had devaluated from 2 million yuan (US$241,546) to less than 100,000 yuan (US$12,077), due to the devaluation of the ruble. And Yakov, Wang's business partner, could no longer take the wait and immigrated to Israel.
When his plan was on the verge of abortion, Wang again got lucky after his project captured the attention of a Beijing-based company that agreed to invest. In 1999, Suifenhe Blue Sky Airport was founded and construction of the airport began.
The project has progressed smoothly ever since. The main building of the airport was completed in 2001. The first test flight took place in 2002, and the airport was formally checked and accredited in January 2003.
"My work in the last 10 years was arduous but worthwhile," he said. "All of the hardship was not in vain."
(Beijing Review November 11, 2004)
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