The airport, 20 kilometers from the Mount Jiuhua scenic spot and Chizhou city seat, covers an area of 213 hectares. It is expected to receive 500,000 tourists by 2020 and 1.45 million tourists by 2040, he said.

The airport is expected to build a 2.4 km long and 45 meters wide runway and a 10,000 square meter terminal. It will be able to handle Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s, he said.

The airport will open routes to Chinese major cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, and also routes to the Republic of Korea, Japan and Singapore, from where many Buddhist believers come to Mount Jiuhua for pilgrimage annually.

Mount Jiuhua, literally "Nine Glorious Mountains", together with Wutai Moutain in north China's Shanxi Province, E'mei Mountain in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Putuo Mountain in east China's Zhejiang Province, are the four great Buddhist mountains in China.