World’s Highest Airport Part Of China’s Multibillion-Dollar Push Into Tibetan

China officially opened the world’s highest-altitude civilian airport Monday in a remote Tibetan-populated prefecture in southwestern Sichuan province. The Garzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s tourism bureau said the new 1.58 billion yuan ($258 million) airport would dramatically reduce the travel time from the provincial capital of Chengdu from two days by bus to just over an hour by plane.

Chinese state media reported that the airport would offer routes connecting Daocheng with Chongqing Municipality, a southwest Chinese business hub, and Maerkang County, capital of Sichuan's Aba Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, beginning in October. The government expects to roll out an expanded network of cities in 2014, including Guangzhou, Shanghai and Xi’an.

China hopes the new airport can promote tourism at the Yading Nature Reserve in the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Xinhua News Agency reported. The state news agency called Yading “the last Shangri-La” and “the last pure land on the blue planet.” - ibtimes