When it opens next month, the airport in Hechi in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region should prove a nail-biting landing for arriving passengers. Dozens of hilltops were levelled to clear way for the 850-million yuan (HK$1.06 billion) airport, built 677 metres above sea level. There is a single terminal and one runway extending 2.2km.

It can accommodate three flights an hour, compared to the 60 that the mainlands busiest airports handle. Construction began in December 2008 and was completed at the end of last year. The airport will be a transit stop on the sole air route between Chongqing and Haikou in Hainan province. It might also add a flight from Guangzhou in the future, local media reported.

Hechi is located in northwestern Guangxi on the southern end of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, which is home to about four million people.