URUMQI -- China Southern Airlines will open a route linking Hong Kong and the northwestern city of Kashgar in April, to boost economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two regions.

China Southern Airlines and the Xinjiang Kashgar government signed a strategic cooperation agreement covering the flights on Friday.

According to the agreement, the flight will take about six hours and forty minutes with a stopover in Urumqi.

Kashgar prefecture, located in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, neighboring Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and India, is an important passway linking Central Asia, Western Asia, Southern Asia and Europe.