A Chinese passenger plane left Manzhouli in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for Russia's Siberian city of Irkutsk Tuesday, marking the launch of a new international flight between the two destinations.

The Southern Airlines MD90 plane carried 144 passengers during its maiden flight, and will serve each Monday and Friday.

The new air route will help promote bilateral trade and resource exchanges between the two countries, said Yun Guangzhong, mayor of Manzhouli, China's largest land port on the China-Russia border.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2005)