Launch of direct flights forecast to increase cooperation

New route unveiled ahead of president's visit to Russia, Dong Jidong and Li Yu report

Chengdu, the capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, has launched direct flights to Moscow ahead of President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia.

Sichuan Airlines unveiled the new route on Saturday, making Chengdu the first city in western China to offer direct flights to the Russian capital. Travel time between the cities now takes less than eight and a half hours, which is expected to encourage bilateral cooperation.

This year marks the 66th anniversary of China-Russia ties and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. At the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi is visiting Russia on Friday and reviewing a military parade in Red Square. China has sent a 110-member honor guard for the event.

Chengdu, as an important base during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), also contributed greatly to victory in World War II. Nowadays, with its increasingly sophisticated flight network, the city has become China's fourth-largest hub for air travel, following Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport has launched 244 routes that connect the city with 119 Chinese cities and 71 cities in other countries.

The city is also planning to build its second airport, which will be the second-largest domestic airport currently under construction once started. The new airport will make Chengdu the third city on the Chinese mainland to have a second airport, following Beijing and Shanghai. This will further strengthen Chengdu's role as a key transportation hub in Southwest China and an international hub for air travel, according to industry insiders.

The construction of a second airport will help create an air Silk Road to Europe, said Tang Limin, a deputy to the National People's Congress and director of Sichuan's Development and Reform Commission.

Tang Liangzhi, mayor of Chengdu, said, "As a transportation hub of the new Asia-Europe land bridge, Chengdu has a solid logistics industry, favorable policies and promising market prospects, all of which make the city the most attractive place in Southwest China for international businesses."

Since the launch of the Chengdu-Europe express railway in April 2013, commodities worth $580 million have been exported to Europe. The regular direct freight train is the fastest railway link between Chengdu and Europe. The line is an artery for economic exchanges between the continents of Asia and Europe and influences the development of China's western region, Europe and Russia.

Dubbed the women's shoe center of China, Chengdu exports about half of the women's shoes it produces to Russia, statistics show.

Cooperation and trade between China and Russia have been expanding significantly since the railway went into operation.

The Chengdu-Moscow direct flight will push forward that momentum, experts said.

In 2014, the volume of trade between Sichuan and Russia reached $1.19 billion, up 24.4 percent year-on-year, according to statistics. The province's exports to Russia totaled $1.12 billion, an increase of 23.3 percent, while imports from Russia reached $63.16 million, up 47.1 percent year-on-year.

Chengdu has built close ties with its counterparts in Russia. In 1998, the city established a friendly relationship with St. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia. In 2011, it established sister-city relations with Volgograd.

Russia ranked 12th among China's outbound tourism destination countries, according to the 2014 Annual Report of China Outbound Tourism Development that was released by the China Tourism Academy in June last year.

City of culture

Chengdu has also made great strides in opening up to the outside world.

In September 2013, Chengdu became the first city in western China to adopt the 72-hour visa-free policy, which allows passengers from 51 countries to spend three days in the city if they have valid third-country visas and flight tickets to onward destinations.

The policy has greatly boosted local tourism. More than 692,900 overseas tourists visited Chengdu from September to December 2013, an increase of 19.55 percent from a year earlier, according to the city's tourism bureau.

In addition to Volgograd, Chengdu has established sister-city relationships with its peers in 23 other countries, including Sheffield, Britain, and Montpellier in France.

Chengdu's popularity is rooted in its cultural and historical heritage. The city has been known as a land of abundance since ancient times. With a history of more than 2,300 years, Chengdu has profound cultural and natural resources.

The city's Jinsha Ruins have been hailed as a significant archaeological discovery that show a thriving culture existed in Chengdu more than 3,000 years ago.

The Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, known as one of the major water conservancy projects during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), was designed and built by Li Bing, a major official in the region around 256 BC. The project is still functioning today.

Qingcheng Mountain, 20 kilometers from Dujiangyan, is the birthplace of Chinese Taoism. Many Taoist temples are intact on the mountain.

Chengdu is also well known as home of the giant panda, Sichuan cuisine and Sichuan opera.

The city was named one of"52 places to go in 2015" by The New York Times in January. Dubbed "a panda and food capital", Chengdu was selected for the popular bears and its spicy yet diverse cuisine.

The giant panda has become a symbol of the city since the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding was founded in 1987. Located on Futou Mountain in the northern suburb of Chengdu, 10 kilometers from the downtown area, the base features panda breeding, conservation, education and tourism. It boasts the most advanced technologies in the world for the breeding and protection of the giant panda.

It was named a national 4A tourist destination by the National Tourism Administration in 2006.

The city is also the birthplace of Sichuan cuisine, one of four major Chinese styles of cooking. In 2010, Sichuan cuisine won global recognition when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization named Chengdu a "City of Gastronomy", making it the first city in Asia to be awarded such an accolade.

Sichuan Opera, one of China's oldest opera traditions, is distinguished by such features as the "face-changing" and "fire-spitting" tricks. Chengdu remains the main home of the opera's tradition.

Chengdu, which is known for its beautiful natural environment, is listed as the most livable city on the Chinese mainland in a report issued by the Asian Development Bank in 2014.

The city has been named the best tourist city in China, as it maintains a balance between fast growth and peaceful lifestyles. The city was also named one of 10 cities on the Chinese mainland with the best overseas image in 2010.

Chengdu has paid great attention to environmental preservation and sustainable development during its process of urbanization.

The city boasts advantageous industries that include automobile manufacturing, electronic information, metallurgy, food and beverage production, petrochemicals and building material manufacturing. The city's GDP in 2014 surpassed 1 trillion yuan ($161 billion), up 8.9 percent year-on-year, according to its statistics bureau.

In the first quarter of this year, Chengdu introduced 108 key projects with investment totaling 46.31 billion yuan. More than 260 Global Fortune 500 companies have established a presence in the city.

"Chengdu warmly welcomes scientific and technological innovation enterprises and workers," Mayor Tang said. "We promise to provide entrepreneurs with greater development space, a better business environment and a more dynamic innovation atmosphere."

Tang proposed at the annual two sessions meeting of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in March that a diamond-shaped economic region made up of Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an and Kunming be developed for integrated growth of the western region, based on the country's Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt strategy.

The total GDP of the four cities reached 3.3 trillion yuan, accounting for a quarter of the total in the western region.

Contact the writers through dongjidong@chinadaily.com.cn

 

Corporate executives and government officials mark the opening of direct flights between Chengdu and Moscow on May 2. Provided to China Daily