Six new airports will be built in central China before the end of the decade, said a senior official with the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).

The six small airports will be built in Bengbu City in east China's Anhui Province, Yichun in Jiangxi Province, Zhumadian in Henan Province, Yueyang and Hengyang in Hunan Province. The sixth will be located near Mount Jiuhua, a well-known Buddhist holy mountain in Anhui.

Airports at six provincial capitals, namely, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Taiyuan, Changsha, Nanchang and Hefei will also be upgraded, said Li Yongqi, from the CAAC's planning section, at a seminar held in the capital of central China's Henan Province.

Central regions include Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Shanxi. They have a combined population of 361 million, and are economically less developed as the country's eastern region.

The Chinese government introduced a new strategy in early 2004 known as "the rise of central regions" to improve the economies of the six provinces.

China had 147 civil airports by the end of 2006, an increase of 26 since 2000. Only 25 are located in central China, with four in Shanxi, five in Jiangxi, five in Hunan, four in Hubei, three in Henan and four in Anhui.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2007)