Qinhuangdao Shanhaiguan Airport is a military airport in

Qinhuangdao Qinhuangdao (; ) is a port city on the coast of China in northern Hebei. It is administratively a prefecture-level city, about east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea. Its population during the 2020 national ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...

Province, China. It is located in

Shanhaiguan District Shanhaiguan District (), formerly Shan-hai-kwan or Shan-hai-kuan, is a district of the city of Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, China, named after the pass of the Great Wall within the district, Shanhai Pass. It is located east of the city centre. ...

, from the city center. From 1985 to 2016 Shanhaiguan Airport also served as the civilian airport for Qinhuangdao. On 31 March 2016, the newly built Qinhuangdao Beidaihe Airport started operation and all civil flights were transferred to the new airport.

History

On 13 September 1971, Marshall

Lin Biao ) , serviceyears = 1925–1971 , branch = People's Liberation Army , rank = Marshal of the People's Republic of China Lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China , commands ...

, China's Vice Premier and Minister of Defense, attempted to flee China in his

Hawker Siddeley Trident The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident (originally the de Havilland DH.121 and briefly the Airco DH.121) is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley. In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (BEA ...

from Shanhaiguan Airport, allegedly following a failed coup attempt. The plane then crashed in Mongolia, killing all nine people on board, including Lin, his wife

Ye Qun Ye Qun (; 2 December 1917 – 13 September 1971) was the wife of Lin Biao, the Vice Chairman of Chinese Communist Party who controlled China's military power along with Chairman Mao Zedong. She was mostly known for taking care of politics for h ...

, and their son Lin Liguo. Shanhaiguan Airport was opened to civil flights on 15 April 1985. During its three decades of operation, it operated flights to more than 20 Chinese cities. For a time starting in 2007, it temporarily operated international flights to

Yakutsk Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one ...

and

Blagoveshchensk Blagoveshchensk ( rus, Благове́щенск, p=bləgɐˈvʲeɕːɪnsk, meaning ''City of the Annunciation'') is a city and the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the confluence of the Amur and the Zeya Rivers, o ...

in Russia. Throughout the thirty years the airport maintained a perfect safety record. Although Shanhaiguan Airport was expanded in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, its status as a military airport limited its potential for further growth. As a result, the new Qinhuangdao Beidaihe Airport was proposed in 2004, and received approval from the

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...

in July 2009. Construction for the new airport officially began in April 2012, and was completed in 2016. On 31 March 2016, Beidaihe Airport started operation, and all civil flights were transferred to the new airport. Shanhaiguan Airport reverted to sole military use, although there are plans to use it for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

. In 2015, its last full year of operation, Shanhaiguan Airport served 156,000 passengers.

Facilities

The airport has a single runway that is long (class 4C). It can handle mid-sized passenger jets such as the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

and the

Airbus 320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

. It has six aircraft parking aprons, and 200 car parking spaces.

References

{{authority control Airports in Hebei Chinese Air Force bases Buildings and structures in Qinhuangdao Airports established in 1985 Defunct airports in China 1985 establishments in China

History

Facilities

See also

References