On January 3^rd, according to Zhang Liwei, Director of the Development and Plan Bureau of the Management Committee of Xi¡¯an Yanliang National Aviation Hi-tech Industrial Base, two high-quality tourism air routes made by the Base will be open to the public in the second half of 2010.

The first high-quality air route is from Neifu Airport to Qiachuan, via Weinan, Hua Shan Mountain, the Huangdi Tomb, Hancheng and Hukou. The flight time will last between 30 minutes and 2 hours and the height will keep between 200m and 3000m. Passengers would get hands-on experiences on plane flying, parachute jump, aerial photography, etc. Meanwhile, passengers would also enjoy the Sima Qian Temple with profound humanistic resources and natural ecological scenes like Qiachuan landscape, Heyang Yellow River Eco-Tourist Area, Hua Shan Mountain, and the Yellow River.

The other route is the trip of the aviation industry. Tourists would visit the aviation technology museum, the biggest one in the Western Region, Xi¡¯an Aircraft Industry (Group) Company, the largest company in China to manufacture medium and large-scale military and civil airplanes, the largest scientific research institute of medium and large-scale military and civil airplanes, the only Flight Test Establishment of China, and China Aircraft Strength Research Institute, the unique institute to research the aircraft strength. Besides, tourists not only visit various kinds of classic planes but also get hands-on experiences on various simulators of these planes.

Xi¡¯an Yanliang Base is the only national aviation industrial base in China. It has Xi¡¯an Aircraft Industry (Group) Company and the strongest airplane design and research institute of China. Now it has become the R&D and production base for various kinds of planes like bombers and fighter bombers. And thus it was called China¡¯s ¡°Seattle¡±.

Zhang also said that the launch of the two routes would eliminate the mystery of aviation for the public and make the whole society focus on the aviation industry so as to promote the development of China¡¯s aviation industry including the opening-up of our airspace.