China Airlines' Zhejiang branch Friday launched a flight service connecting Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, with Singapore.

This is the city's second international air route after the first was set up between Hangzhou and Seoul, capital of the Republic of Korea, in the latter half of last year.

Travelers from Hangzhou can take the CA157 flights every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. local time and arrive in Singapore at 0:50 a.m. local time.

The CA158 return flights take off every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 7:10 a.m. local time and arrive at Hangzhou at 12:10 p.m. local time.

The service will use the Airbus A319 and cover a direct distance of 3,800 kilometers.

Exchanges between China's booming Zhejiang Province and Singapore have been soaring in recent years.

Statistics show that about 28,560 tourists went to Singapore from Zhejiang, up 40 percent from the previous year and about 69,850 tourists came to Zhejiang from Singapore, up 85 percent on the previous year.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2004)