New air route to link Harbin, Paris

HARBIN - A flight between the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin and Paris, France, will begin on March 30, cutting the travel time by hours.

The round-trip flight, operated by Russia's Ural Airlines with an Airbus A320, will ply the route once a week, and will stop in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg, according to Harbin Taiping International Airport.

The Paris-bound flight will leave from Harbin, capital of China's Heilongjiang Province, at around 1 am every Thursday, and return to Harbin a hour after its arrival in Paris.

The flight will take 14 hours, slashing the current travel time between Harbin and Paris, which require a transfer in Beijing or Shanghai and take 16 or 19 hours.