A new Chinese border airport in Tengchong County in the country's southwestern Yunnan province adjoining Burma was inaugurated on February 16. It will make it easier for Taiwanese to visit the cemetery of Kuomintang (KMT) martyrs in the country, said local sources.
The airport authorities said it operated three flights a day between Kunming and Tengchong which is 750 kilometres apart. It would open new routes in other tourist spots in Yunnan.
Taiwanese people have been allowed to visit the cemetery of KMT martyrs, which is located one kilometre southwest of Tengchong city by China since the Chinese and Taiwanese officials signed agreements on November 4, 2008 expanding chartered flights, maritime shipping and cooperation on food safety issues. This brought their governments closer as both struggle to overcome economic slowdowns.
Before the agreements, Taiwanese were not allowed to visit the cemetery of KMT martyrs or rebuild damaged tombs by the Chinese government. The cemetery has tombs of thousands of KMT soldiers who died in the counter offensive to recapture Tengchong from the Japanese in World War from 1937 to 1945.
From 18 to 20 July, 2004, after unabated heavy rainstorm, floods, mudslides and landslides in Tengchong, one third of the tombs of KMT martyrs were seriously damaged, said sources close to residents of Tengchong.
The tombs of KMT martyrs were also damaged by volcanoes and earthquakes because Tengchong is on a volcanic region and earthquake fault line in Yunnan province.
The airport was opened two years after China completed the reconstruction of the 176-km long Stilwell Road also called Ledo Road between Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state in northern Burma and Tengchong. Stilwell road wends its way from Ledo in Assam state in northeast India. It was used for sending military supplies to Chinese troops in Yunnan province by the US during the Second World War from India, while fighting the Japanese.
At the moment, Tengchong accounts for ore and aluminum production in China and it is also a large border market for jade and timber from Kachin state in northern Burma.
