CHINA will open a civil airport in Tengchong County in Yunnan Province, where the Flying Tigers, a band of US fighter pilots, helped defend China against the Japanese invasion during World War II.
Camel Peak Airport will open before the end of next year to commemorate the Tigers and the famous Camel Peak Aviation Route across the Himalayas. The route has been nicknamed the "Death Route" because of the danger it posed to pilots, who risked their lives to deliver urgently needed military supplies to soldiers more than 60 years ago.
The airport will be in Camel Peak Village, about 12 kilometers from Tengchong County, Zhang Weijian, a top county official, said yesterday.
Jointly funded by Yunnan Airport Group, Yunnan Guanfang Group and the Tengchong County government, the 433-million-yuan (US$58 million) regional airport will be able to handle 480,000 passengers a year, according to Zhang.
Last year, the county received 2.45 million tourists and reported about 900 million yuan of tourism income.
Authorities also plan to build a park at Camel Peak to commemorate the Chinese soldiers and members of the Flying Tigers. It will include a peace gate, a friendship monument and a memorial wall.
The Tigers were volunteer US military men sent secretly by President Franklin D. Roosevelt before the United States entered World War II. They joined an air force organized for China by Claire Lee Chennault, a retired US Army colonel.
An estimated 1,500 Flying Tigers members and 900 Chinese airmen who fought with them died in the war. From December 1941 to September 1945, the Flying Tigers shot down 2,600 Japanese aircraft, destroyed 44 warships and killed an estimated 66,700 Japanese soldiers.