(This text material comes from XINHUA. Forreference only. )

HOHHOT, Aug. 13，2016 (Xinhua) -- North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regionopened new international air routes on Friday to Thailand and Russia.

A Thai AirAsia Airbus 330 will fly Ordos to Pattaya once a week, covering thedistance in 4.5 hours.

A new link from Ordos to Russia's Irkutsk run by Tianjin Airline will fly  every Monday and Friday taking 2.5 hours.

The airport was accredited by the State Council as an international airhub in January and its first international route was to Seoul and plans flightsto Ulan Bator and Hong Kong.

Ordos is about 300 km from the regional capital Hohhot. Its nametranslates into "many palaces" in Mongolian. The city, with apopulation of 1.94 million, has rich coal and natural gas reserves. Fortourists, its major attractions include the tomb of Genghis Khan, deserts andruins of an ancient civilization dating back almost 50,000 years.