The Aerial “Silk Road”

3 min read

The old airport, small cabin, the people with briefcases, Sun Yat Sen suits, and peaked caps, boarded a plane with eyes beaming with curiosity and waiting for takeoff solemnly.

This was the scene of Xinjiang people taking planes more than thirty years ago. At that time, taking plane seemed to be the symbol of identity and status. Only the personnel sent by offices or enterprises for business trips would took the plane, and the dressing style of passengers indicated clearly the imprint of that era. If you wanted to buy a ticket, you must provide the reason and the destination together with the introduction letter officially sealed by your work unit.

Urumqi International Airport

Therefore, it was unreachable for the majority of people in Xinjiang to travel by plane.

Just like the plane flying in the sky, the ticket price was also sky-high then. If anyone who ever travelled by plane, people around would keep asking interesting questions admiringly, like”How does it feel?”,”Will you be afraid of flying so high?”,”Can you see the birds flying out of the window?”

Nowadays, it is particularly convenient to buy a ticket by the telephone, or online booking systems, and then get the ticket with your ID card. The price of airline ticket can be even cheaper than that of the train ticket on off-season discounts, so more and more people in Xinjiang choose to travel by plane with various reasons of official business, business affairs, tour, visiting friends and relatives and so on.

Each travel has become pleasant experience since chances for people of all nationalities in Xinjiang to travel by plane are increasing. It is a great pleasure for people to see the panorama of Xinjiang in the sky, and more devotion for the land will be aroused when seeing the numerous buildings, the vehicles’ flow, the wide roads, and the picturesque farmland before taking off and landing; and overlooking the vast sand sea, the ice ridges and peaceful lakes, and the long river in the sunset when the plane climbs to the cloud.

It is quite emotional to look back at the faltering start of the Xinjiang Civil Aviation when facing its enormous changes nowadays.

The civil aviation industry of Xinjiang can be traced back to 1931 when Eurasia Aviation Corporation, the Sino-German joint venture, was set up in Xinjiang.

The total number of passengers transported in Xinjiang Airport was only 28,639 during the decade from 1940 to 1949, the goods of 1,652 tons, and mails of 40 tons. The airports in Hami, Dihua(Urumqi now), Tacheng Ili and other places were very simple, and the airfield runways were made of natural Gobi by slightly leveling and rolling. Xinjiang Civil Aviation was developed from such a weak basis.

At the beginning of the reform and opening up, the planes in Xinjiang were outmoded with small cabins, poor equipments There were less than 6 air routes at that time, and were restricted to Kashgar, Hetian, Aksu, Yining and other places inside of Xinjiang. The planes were outdated, but the airports were even shabbier. The old terminal of Urumgi airport was very narrow, got crowded easily when encountering the peak of passenger flow.The conditions of sub-airports were even worse, some with soil runways, and most had no enclosures, and only light airplanes could take off and land. In winter, the soil runways would freeze, and could not be used when the snow melts each season each year.

In 1985, Xinjiang Airlines, the first airline of Civil Aviation of China, began operations And also that year, Xinjiang bid farewell to the history of “airplanes with propellers, air routes inside of Xinjiang”. In July 1989, the international route between Urumqi and Almaty was opened; the dream of flying out of the country by Xinjiang airplanes finally came true.

After three expansions, the Urumqi Internation Airport can accommodate the air buses of Boeing 777, Boeing 787 or even larger and the Airbus A380 can also take off and land here after the new expansion project. The new terminal in Urumqi airport, with the “T”type inner gallery structure of two and a half layers, a central hall of 81 meters in depth, and the east-west corridor of 400 meters, is full of characteristics and cultural atmosphere reflecting Xinjiang. Overlooking from the outside, it just like a swan spreading its wings. The subairports that are distributed in regional cities are no longer shabby, but with the local distinctive characteristics.