Watching a beautiful landscape and fighter planes in a
breathtaking performance the combination is making tourism
officials in Hunan Province drool.
Zhangjiajie, one of the top tourism spots in Central China,
thinks plenty of people will come to see 10 Russian fighter planes,
including SU-30s and SU-27s, give a demonstration on March
17-19.
A SU-27 plans to fly through Tianmen Cave, the highest natural
water-eroded cave in the world. It runs north-south with a height
of 131 meters, a width of 57 meters and a depth of 60 meters. It is
28 meters wide at its narrowest.
"We have prepared for this flight performance for nearly two
years," said Ye Wenzhi, planner of the performance, which is
expected to cost about 52 million yuan (US$6.4 million).
Ye did a similar stunt at Zhangjiajie in 1999. This time,
though, people have expressed more concern about the safety issues
involved, so Ye has responded. "We have invited experts to make a
comprehensive investigation," Ye said.
To prevent any loss caused by bad weather, Ye bought an
insurance policy worth a record 2.7 million yuan (US$333,000) from
Ping An of China.
If the performance is postponed because of weather, the
organizing committee will receive one million yuan (US$123,000) a
day.
Another factor involved is Sino-Russian relations.
"This year is the Year of Russia in China," said He Tongxin,
vice governor of Hunan Province. "It is expected that this
performance will strengthen the friendship between China and
Russia."
"I hope that this performance will be a big leap forward for the
Zhangjiajie tourism industry," said Ye, who also manages a tourism
company.
The previous flying stunt helped bring in 2.5 billion yuan
(US$308 million) of tourism revenue to Zhangjiajie for the
following three years. Ye expected the influence of the performance
this year to be even further-reaching.
About 20,000 tickets will be sold for the three-day performance.
VIP tickets for the event are selling for as much as 6,800 yuan
(US$840).
(China Daily February 28, 2006)
