Yunnan is becoming a hive of aviation activity. First,
China will invest RMB1 billion to expand the airport in Lijiang, a renowned scenic spot in Yunnan. After the expansion, the airport will be able to handle 4.05 million passengers every year to become the second largest airport in Yunnan province.

Next, approval has been given to the construction of a major international airport in Kunming, capital of the southwestern Yunnan Province. This construction is starting ina matter of days and should be completed within three years. When finished, the airport will be be able to handle more than 20 million passengers and 600,000 tons of freight a year. And there is scope for further expansion when needed.

The airport will cover 21 square kilometers in Dabanqiao town, 20 kilometers from downtown Kunming. The new airport will become the fourth aviation hub after Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Meanwhile, the other Yunnan airport, the new Lijiang airport, will also become an air hub for the Shangri-la tourist route which is in Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet. It will connect with Tibet and Sichuan in the north and extend to Laos and Thailand in the south via Xishuangbanna. It will complement Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, to become another transportation center in the province and link with Hong Kong to serve as an international transportation channel in Yunnan.

When the new Lijiang Airport is completed, there will be three open airports in Yunnan, with the center airport located in Kunming, and two supplemental airports located in Xishuangbanna and Lijiang. In addition, Lijiang airport will become the 45th mainland airport linking with Hong Kong.

Yunnan, therefore is attracting an amazing amount of investment in aviation infrastructure. Why? It is a magic magnet for tourits. Last year, well over four million tourists went to Lijiang alone for sightseeing and by 2008, the number of tourists to Lijiang is expected to reach 7 million.

Yunnan, which means ’south of the clouds’, is the most southwestern province in China, with the Tropic of Cancer running through its southern part. The province has an area of 394,000 square km, 4.1% of the China’s’s total.

The province borders Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province in the east, Sichuan Province in the north, and Tibet Autonomous Region in the northwest. It shares a border of 4,060 km with Myanmar in the west, Laos in the south, and Vietnam in the southeast. Difficult to think of a better position as a center for tourism.