If you looked up a list of the world’s highest commercial airports, you will notice that the top 20 are dominated by South American countries and the People’s Republic of China. The world’s highest civilian airport opened its doors today, high up in a remote Tibetan region of the Southwestern Sichuan province. Ironically enough, the Daocheng airport was opened by, you guessed it right, China.

Where?

A heavily ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan called Garzi. At 4411 meters above sea level, Daocheng airport is now officially the highest airport in the world replacing Tibet’s Qamdo airport (which is perched at 4334 meters above sea level) as number 1.

Garzi has been the scene of numerous self-immolation protests against Chinese rule in the last three years or so and remains under tight security.

Why?

The primary purpose is for better and faster connectivity to the provincial capital of Chengdu. A two day bus trip away till now, the distance will now be covered in a little more than an hour. Flights to cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing are scheduled to begin at a later date.

Equipped to handle 280,000 passengers a year, the hope is also that the presence of an airport will open up the nearby Yading Nature Reserve to tourism. The Reserve is an area renowned for its primal natural beauty, as yet untouched, rather yet to be marauded by human hands.

China’s Evil Plan?!

In the recent past, China seems to have embarked upon a multi-billion-dollar to revamp old airports and build new ones, especially in the remote west, as a way of boosting the economy. The Daocheng airport was built on a budget of 1.58 billion yuan. Why spend so much money and open an airport in a region as ethnically sensitive as Garzi?

Some of the new and revamped airports have been located in Tibetan regions, whose population chafes at Chinese political control. Experts suggest the Chinese have a not so subtle dual military purpose so troops can be flown in quickly during periods of unrest.