12:22, January 01, 2008

Birthplace of China's first 'sky truck' to be turned into resort

A giant water-eroded cave nestled n lush mountains in west China's Chongqing Municipality, once a place where the Kuomintang (KMT) Party secretly developed planes, has been listed for investment by the local authority to be developed into a resort.

In a grand scheme, Wansheng District of Chongqing plans to turn the cave into a tourist attraction while preserving its 47,000-square-meter deserted plane workshop.

The district's tourist bureau recently sent out investment information for comprehensive tourist development of the cave and its surrounding area. It estimated it would cost over 500 million yuan (67 million U.S. dollars) to develop.

The bureau's investment website listed the Haikong Cave "as an ideal place for conferences and leisure travel".

The enshrouded cave is 50 meters high and as spacious as a giant conference hall. It was used by the KMT party as a secret manufacturing base to develop planes in 1939. The first plane, a middle-range sky truck, took off from there in October 1944. The plant was deserted in 1949.

The tourist bureau said that the manufacturing plant could be developed into a loft art workshop. The cave has a constant temperature of 18 degree Celsius.

Source: Xinhua

 


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