Jiuzhou Airport

Jiuzhou Airport

Jiuzhou Airport

Located 26 kilometers north of the county town, Jiuzhou Airport sits by the Shangwuyang River in a national scenic area, at the junction of southeastern Guizhou, southern Guizhou, Zunyi, and Tongren regions. At the time, it was a large military airport in Guizhou and was designated as the "Southwest Central Airport." The airport stretches 10 kilometers from east to west and is 2 kilometers wide from north to south. It has two main and auxiliary runways, each over 2,400 meters long, and taxiways extending over 5,400 meters. Facilities include aprons, aircraft bunkers, ammunition depots, fuel depots, barracks, and an American Street. Built in 1941 with funding from the United States, it cost over 580 million old Guizhou dollars at the time. Construction involved more than 100,000 laborers conscripted from ten counties: Huangping, Yuqing, Shibing, Lushan (now Kaili), Pingyue (now Fuquan), Weng’an, Majiang, Taijiang, Shiqian, and Zhenyuan. After completion, the airport housed over 1,000 U.S. troops, along with more than 100 bombers, fighters, and transport planes, operating dozens of sorties daily. During World War II, it served members of the 14th Air Force of the U.S. Air Force, including some Chinese-American servicemen. Fifty-five years later, these veterans returned to their roots, arriving in Guangzhou on November 2, 2000, to begin their journey of rediscovery in China. A group of 19 Flying Tigers veterans and their relatives, totaling 53 people, embarked on a 14-day tour of cities such as Guangzhou, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Nanjing in mainland China, arranged by Guangdong China Travel Service. Officials from Guangdong China Travel Service explained that the event was initiated by Mr. Huang Jiongzhong, a former Flying Tiger. Huang enlisted in the U.S. military in 1944 and was subsequently dispatched to China, where he served as a radio operator in the communications department of the 14th Air Force, handling telegraph transmissions and decrypting Japanese messages. He was stationed in Yunnan, Kunming, Chongqing, and Huangping in Guizhou.

According to Huang Jiongzhong, Chinese soldiers were present in various departments of the U.S. Far East Air Force, with the 14th Air Force alone having approximately 2,000 pilots and a total of 40,000 personnel, including ground staff—over 1,000 of whom were based at Jiuzhou Airport. The main and auxiliary runways of Jiuzhou Airport remain largely intact and can still accommodate aircraft takeoffs and landings. It stands as a testament to the Sino-American cooperation during World War II. Preliminary work to repurpose Huangping Airport as a tourist feeder airport is underway. Provincial and prefectural leaders, including Wang Chaowen, Guo Shuqing, Liu Guanglei, and Liu Xiaokai, have inspected Jiuzhou Airport, expressing hope for its early expansion into a tourism airport serving the Wuyang River Scenic Area in eastern Guizhou and contributing to the development of tourism in the region.

Yang River Scenic Area's tourism airport, playing a role in developing tourism in Guizhou.