China's westernmost airport opens, lending Pamir residents wings

URUMQI -- On Friday morning, a passenger aircraft dipped over the snow-capped Kunlun Mountains and landed smoothly at the Taxkorgan airport at 10:59 am, marking the start of operations at China's westernmost transportation airport.

Sawudayi Jangbiq, a resident of Taxkorgan Tajik autonomous county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, waited in his village of Pile, watching a livestream of the historic moment on his mobile phone.

"Having flights from the door of our house is something we never dreamed of before," he said, as the flight CZ5193, operated by China Southern Airlines, completed its around two-hour hop from the regional capital of Urumqi.

For Sawudayi and others like him, the opening of Xinjiang's first high plateau airport, located at 3,258 meters above sea level, is a milestone in transport links.

MOST CHALLENGING TASK

Equipped with a 3,800-meter runway, the airport is designed to handle an annual throughput of 160,000 passengers and 400 tonnes of cargo and mail. Construction of the airport began in 2020, with an investment of more than 1.6 billion yuan (about $229 million).

Building an airport on the Pamir Plateau has not been easy, with the lack of oxygen and cold weather impacting the efficiency of airport workers and slowing the progress of the project.

"It is one of the most challenging tasks I've ever taken on," said Xu Changjiu, the technical director of the terminal area of the airport, who has been working in airport engineering for more than 20 years.

In September 2020, Xu came to Taxkorgan for the first time to survey the construction site with more than 100 workers. But they soon started to experience altitude sickness -- low fever, dizziness and even vomiting.

As they struggled to adapt to the plateau climate, some Tajik residents brought naan bread and hot tea from home, and some offered to share the work of transporting concrete.

"We felt the locals' warmth and their hopes for the airport. We were determined to complete the project, no matter how hard it seemed to be," Xu said.

Earlier this year, through the concerted efforts of over 4,000 workers, the flight area and terminal of the airport were completed as scheduled, passing the acceptance check.

"In the past, I needed to travel 40 to 50 hours by bus and train to get to Beijing. Thanks to the new airport, the plane has slashed the time to only eight hours," said Mirsayip Nuralip, a local Tajik resident who attended college in Beijing.

LIFE TO TAKE OFF

In Toglunxa village, Xanbi Libiq's house looks out on some picturesque scenery. On the wetland outside the front door, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep can be seen beneath the blue sky, with the lofty mountains in the distance.

Taxkorgan has invested heavily in the tourism business that depends on the local scenic spots, such as Mount Muztagata and Mount Qogir. Homestays and supporting facilities have been set up, while farmers and herdsmen have been given professional training to raise the quality of service.

In the first 10 months of this year, nearly 700,000 tourist trips were made to Taxkorgan, up 9.89 percent year-on-year, with the county's tourism revenue registering a year-on-year increase of 13.67 percent to hit 372 million yuan.

Ayimhan Murateli, 22, works as a livestream salesperson, promoting yak meat jerky and other local agricultural products on e-commerce platforms.

"The sales volume can reach up to 70,000 yuan a month. With the airport opening, our products can be delivered more quickly and we are expecting more customers," she said.

Taxkorgan, in the eastern part of the Pamir Plateau, is the only Tajik autonomous county in China, with more than 80 percent of its roughly 40,000 residents belonging to the Tajik ethnic group. The scarcity of convenient and efficient transport once hampered the county's socio-economic development.

For a long time, villagers on the plateau relied on yaks and camels to stay connected with the world outside. Anyone who wanted to walk out of the area had to scale mountains, avoid rocks falling from the cliffs, and cross rivers, either on the back of an animal or on foot.

However, since 2013, more than 1 billion yuan has been invested in carving out roadways in Taxkorgan. From 2016 to 2020, nearly 1,050 km of paved rural roads were laid and the county's total length of highways exceeded 1,500 km.

Now, all the townships and administrative villages under the county have access to hardened roads. With the inauguration of the new airport, Pamir residents' lives are ready to further take off.

The convenient air passage will bring a steady flow of people, logistics and information to the Pamir Plateau, promoting industrial development on the plateau, said Zapar Atawulla, head of the county government.

"The airport will also play a positive role in improving the local transport, promoting local tourism and opening up to the outside world," he added.