January 10, 2008 -- Local authorities will invest about $67 million to convert Haikong cave, the birthplace of China's airplane industry, into a tourism resort, reported state-owned Xinhua newswire Jan 1.

The cave is located in the mountainous Wansheng district of Chongqing municipality. It's 150 feet high and extends for 47,000 square feet, and was used by the Kuomintang as a secret airplane manufacturing plant during WWII. China's first airplane, the middle-range "sky truck," was built there and took off in 1944. The plant was then abandoned in 1949, Xinhua reported.

According to Wansheng's tourist bureau, HaiKong cave is "an ideal place for conference and leisure travel."