The air control tower now being built at new Beiyun International Airport of Guangzhou, one of China's southern gates to the outside world, will stand 104.5 meters upon completion, the highest in the country.

Sources from the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport Co. Ltd said that the Guangzhou regional air control central project, or the air control tower, will cost about 660 million yuan (about US$ 79.52 million) and will be well equipped.

On completion, it will be the third major air control center in China. The other two are based in Shanghai and Beijing.

The aviation administrative building will have four storeys, with the combined floor space totaling 81.51 million square meters, and will have an investment budget of 68.45 million yuan (about US$ 8.25 million).

Both works, which are designed by a united aviation engineering body from Singapore, will be finished by the end of this year.

The new airport, which is now under heated construction, will cover an area of 1,456 hectares, about four times the size of the existing Baiyun Airport, that is situated in the suburbs of Guangzhou and has long been overburdened by increasing passengers and cargo.

Able to accommodate the world's largest planes, such as the Boeing 747, the new airport will be ready for service by late October 2003.

( People's Daily January 16, 2002 )