After a flight of three hours and fifty minutes, a chartered plane from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region arrived in Lhasa Saturday, making it the llth air route that links the Tibet Autonomous Region with the outside.

The Boeing 757 is scheduled to fly over 2,800 kilometers from Hong Kong to Tibet every Saturday and from Tibet to Hong Kong every Thursday.

The newly opened route is aimed at attracting overseas tourists to the mysterious plateau, or the world ridge, which reported 600, 000 arrivals last year.

Officials with major travel agencies from Hong Kong and Taiwan were among the first passengers aboard the plane. They will hold talks with local tourism departments on the issue of cooperation.

(People's Daily 07/23/2001)