Foundation laying for airport near Taoist resort

A foundation laying ceremony was held Saturday for an airport near Mount Wudang, a Taoist resort in central China's Hubei Province, authorities said.

Construction on the Wudangshan Airport will be kicked off soon and it will be the fifth airport to be built in the province, the provincial government said in a press release.

The airport is scheduled to be built with an investment of 1.54 billion yuan (247 million U.S. dollars), and is expected to become operational in 2015, it said.

The airport is 20 km from the Mount Wudang and about 15 km from Shiyan city proper.

One of China's planned regional airports, the airport's planned 2,600-meter-long runway will support operations of feeder liners with flight distances of 800 to 1,500 km.

The airport is designed to handle 900,000 passengers and 2,250 tones of cargoes and mails by 2020.

Mount Wudang, with a long history associated with Taoism, is home to numerous palaces and temples that exemplify the architectural and artistic feats of China's imperial Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

The cluster of palaces and temples dedicated to Taoism were built in the scenic valleys and on the slopes of Mount Wudang, which UNESCO included on the World Cultural Heritage List in 1994.