Shanghai Airlines will start flying a direct route from Shanghai to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam from Thursday.

This is the third air route to Vietnam opened by Chinese airlines after China Southern Airlines opened routes from Guangzhou to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Travelers will be able to get from Shanghai to Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam's largest economic center, in just four hours.

With the fast-growing economic cooperation between the two cities, about 20,000 passengers travel on business between them every year. Last year alone, 650,000 Chinese tourists went to Vietnam.

Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City, both with the greatest potentialfor development, became sister cities in the early 1990s.

( People's Daily August 8, 2002)