China is enlarging a former military airport in Jinggangshan, east China, to meet tourism boom.

Jinggangshan is located at Jiangxi Province, where Chairman MaoZedong and his comrades had a base to fight the Kuomintang government in early last century.

The construction was expected to be completed before the end of this year and flights will be made available next year, when it will take only two hours and 15 minutes from Beijing to Jinggangshan, according to the Jinggangshan's tourism bureau.

Statistics show that visitors from home and abroad increased at an annual 20 percent rate in recent years, but the former military airport was too small and hampered the passenger handling capacity.

The enlargement project will cost 170 million yuan (US20 million), and will lift its annual capacity to 280,000 passengers, according to the bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2003)