First charter flight to land at new Xinjiang airport
A charter flight taking 175 tourists from Shanghai to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region sets off from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport today.
It is the first tourism charter flight to land at Yarkant Airport in Kashgar Prefecture since the airport opened in August.
The tourists onboard will spend eight days touring glaciers and deserts in Kashgar, Yecheng and Yarkant, and experience local culture and tradition.
These places boast the most beautiful landscape in the southern parts of Xinjiang, said Xu Jun, an official with the Shanghai Tourism Administration.
Shanghai enjoys long-term cooperation with these locations to assist in their construction and development.
Shanghai has been actively establishing cooperation with Kashgar in terms of tourism development, according to the administration.
More than 40 percent of tour groups to Kashgar this year are from Shanghai, and professors from Tongji University, Fudan University and East China Normal University have provided suggestions for the tourism blueprint, design and education of Kashgar, according to the administration.
Today's flight is operated by Shanghai Spring Airlines.
