Charter flights begin to north Chin

    russian holidaymakers will be able to take charter flights to the north china tourist resort of qinhuangdao from june, in the first direct flights to the area from china's border, tourism chiefs said monday.
    the charter flights, with total capacity of nearly 2,000 passengers, would start from june 18 twice a week for eight weeks, said zhang lirong, deputy chief of the tourism bureau of qinhuangdao, hebei province.
    the service would be operated by grand china air, a subsidiary of china's hainan airlines.
    the flights would fly into shanhaiguan airport from manzhouli city, china's largest land port in inner mongolia autonomous region, bordering russia, where more than 1 million russians enter china every year, zhang said.
    they would be the first charter flights from manzhouli to qinhuangdao, which is famous for its beach resort of beidaihe, zhang said.
    the charter flight contract was signed between qinhuangdao international travel agency and manzhouli china international travel service in late march, zhang said.
    individual tourists with chinese visas from russian cities such as irkutsk, chita and ulan-ude could enter china at manzhouli, and join a package tour of manzhouli china international travel service (mcits) there to beidaihe for the eight weeks from mid june to mid august.
    "previously the package tours had gone to beidaihe by train, and this would be the first year by charter flight," said wang yanxia, a representative of the mcits, monday.
    "if the booking numbers are satisfactory, next year we will continue to have these charter flights," she said.
    beidaihe started to receive russian tourists in 1994 and 40,000 russians traveled there last year, accounting for 90 percent of the total foreign tourists to beidaihe in 2009.
    former chinese leader mao zedong went to beidaihe frequently in the 1950s and wrote a famous poem titled "waves washing the sand: beidaihe" there in 1954.
    source: xinhua