Mar. 28, 2007

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) on Monday launched a direct service between Beijing and Stockholm. 

Every Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, an Airbus A340 will depart Beijing at 2:45 PM and arrive at Stockholm at 6:10 PM local time.

From Monday, SAS will operate 10 flights a week from Beijing International Airport to Scandinavia: six flights to Copenhagen and four to Stockholm. From September 2007, the number of flights to the two Scandinavian capitals would increase, said a company statement. 

Beijing would become a convenient transfer base for SAS given its proximity to other Chinese and Asian cities, the new airport terminal to be completed this year, and SAS’s code-sharing partnership with Air China, said Lars Lindgren, chief executive of Scandinavian Airlines International.

Leshan, located at the confluence of the Dadu River and Min River, is famous for the Grand Buddha, carved into the limestone cliff overlooking the rivers. Over 70m high, it is the largest remaining Buddha sculpture in the world since the Taliban destroyed the one in Afghanistan. The construction, started in AD 713, lasted 90 years. A water drainage system reduces erosion by rain and slows weathering. The Grand Buddha is part of a sprawling complex of temples set on two hills which are said to have the shape of a lying Buddha.  The Grand Buddha of Leshan is UNESCO World Heritage site.

The statue was begun in 713, the first year of the reign of Tang Emperor Xuanzong, and completed in 803, the 19th year of the reign of the Tang Emperor Dezhong. To the right of the statue a plank road with nine turns was built and it is now famous as the nine-turn plank road; it goes from the bottom to the top.

The city, located 180km southwest of Chengdu and 20km west of Emeishan, is Sichuan Province's second largest city, with a population of 3.5 million and appears to offer a mixture of old and new.