A DIRECT air route was opened between the Russian republic of Tatarstan and China, Tatarstan Air Lines Director General Magomed Zakarzhayev announced Saturday.

　　A Tu-154 airliner carrying businessmen and tourists from Russia, China and other countries took off Saturday morning from the international airport in Kazan, the capital of the republic, and headed for Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Zakarzhayev was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

　　The foreign trade volume between Tatarstan and China has exceeded US$61 million this year, double that of last year, according to Tatarstan’s Ministry of Fuel and Foreign Economic Cooperation.

　　A Tatar government delegation took the first flight to China to open a Tatar industrial fair in Urumqi.

　　Tatarstan is located on the eastern frontier of Europe at the confluence of the Volga and the Kama rivers.

　　It covers a territory of 68,000 square kilometers with a population of about 3.7 million.

　　(Xinhua)