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People's Liberation Army
Air Force
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Gaoqi International Airport
24°32'N 118°07'E
Located on the north end of Xiamen [Hsia Men] island several dozen kilometers west Jinmen [Chin-Men or Quemoy] Island, this civilian airfield served by China Northwest Airlines [with an 8,858 foot long runway] is probably also available to support military operations. The expansion project was begun in 1993 and finished in 1996. No further expansion is planned at this time. Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, which hosts 22 airways, is one of the major aviation hub in East China. Its scheduled route network serves 52 domestic and international destinations such as: Singapore, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Jakarta, with more than 380 flights from Xiamen per week.
In March 2000 it was reported that the PLA Air Force was deploying new air-defense missiles [possibly batteries of Russian-made S-300 missiles] opposite Taiwan at the coastal cities of Xiamen and Shantou, and at Longtian, near Fuzhou. The S-300 missiles have twice the range of the HQ-2 [China's version of the Russian-designed SA-2 SAM] deployed at these locations. China has a total of six HQ-2 facilities near Taiwan, also including airfields at Fuzhou, Zhangzhou near Xiamen, and the military airfield at Liancheng.
Situated in the South Fujian Province, to the west of the Taiwan Straits, Xiamen, a traditional trading port is one of the first four Special Economic Zones in China. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, a city wall was built here called Xiamen, meaning that it was a gate to the grand mansion of the motherland. In 1933, Xiamen City was established. Today's Xiamen has six districts and Tongan and Jinmen Counties under its administration, with a total area(not including Jinmen) of 1,516 km2 and a population of 1,060,000.
Known as a famous tourist destination, Xiamen has been famed as a home town of overseas Chinese with 350,000 overseas Chinese of Xiamen descent. Equipped with 81 berths of different sizes, the Port of Xiamen ranks among the top ten in China, with links to 60-odd ports in more than 40 countries or regions. There are regular international and regional shipping lines between Xiamen and ITSA, Germany, Belgium, II.K., Netherlands, Japan, Southeast Asia, Korea, Kaohsiung and Hong Kong, etc.. In 1997, the port handled over 17.5 million tons of goods, including more than 550,000 TEUs of containers.
Photographic Evaluation Report
High resolution imagery is available from two sources. Declassified CORONA imagery is available from 10 February 1969. As of 08 April 2000 Russian 2-meter resolution KVR-1000 imagery coverage was not available via the SPIN-2 service on TerraServer. As of 08 April 2000 archival Space Imaging IKONOS 1-meter imagery available on the CARTERRA™ Archive includes 8 scenes, acquired between 14 February 2000 and 15 March 2000. Of these scenes, however, 7 have heavy cloud cover in excess of the standard 20% threshold. The single remaining scene includes Gaoqi International Airport.
Sources and Resources
- "Chinese Bases Near Taiwan Sport Defense Missiles," Bill Gertz, The Washington Times 28 March 2000, Page 1.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/facility/gaoqi.htm
Maintained by Webmaster
Originally created by John Pike
Updated Friday, May 12, 2000 12:00:01 AM
