New air route links south China metropolis, skiing destination

China Southern Airlines on Wednesday opened a new flight route linking the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou to the Shennongjia Forestry District in Central China's Hubei province.

The two-hour flight will run on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016, Shennongjia is a popular skiing destination for people from south China and is home to four ski resorts and two ice and snow-themed parks, with a daily passenger handling capacity of 20,000.

The route has been opened amid a rising fervor for ice-snow sports due to the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics.

Ice-snow tourism will become a major driver for China's winter tourism and ice-snow economy, with its total income expected to surpass 1.1 trillion yuan (about $172.8 billion) by 2025, according to the China Tourism Academy.