An Il 18-240 aircraft which once served as the late Chinese president Liu Shaoqi's personal airplane is on its way to his hometown, to be put on display there.

The plane, dismantled and loaded on 11 trucks, left southwest China's Sichuan Province Thursday, destined for Ningxiang County, the location of Liu's birthplace, in Hunan Province.

The 1,750-km journey will take about a week, according to Huang Ke, an official at Liu's memorial in his hometown.

The plane was bought from a collector in Sichuan by the memorial at a cost of 1.2 million yuan (about US$144,578) to mark the 105th anniversary of Liu's birth this November.

A 3,000-sq-m parking apron has been completed for the plane, which is scheduled to be on show starting in October after being re-assembled and repainted, Huang said.

China bought five Il 18s from the Soviet Union in 1959, and the Il 18-240 is the only one left. It was taken out of service in 1980.

(China Daily August 29, 2003)