Media Report
[Ming Cheng News]Suzhou heliport opened – pay ¥800 to watch Jinji Lake
DATE:2014-12    HITS:

Ming Cheng News (reporter Shuguang Xiong): Today (Sep 10th), Suzhou heliport start to open. From now on, Suzhou citizens can learn to fly, hold a flying wedding, or helicopter leasing in their hometown. As known, the citizens will be able to watch the famous Jinji Lake by taking a helicopter and the cost will be ¥800.

At 10:00 A.M, the reporters take a Robinson R44 helicopter with the captain and fly to the sky. Different from the civil airplane we usually take, this helicopter only have 4 seats. The reporter had the honor to sit next to the pilot and watched the operating at a short range. But we have to wear the headphone because of the noise. 

The captain operated the helicopter expertly and report with the tower from time to time. After 3 minutes, the helicopter has already reached the Jinji Lake. The Taohua Island looks like the petals scattering in the middle of Jinji Lake. The helicopter circled a few times and then landed at the heliport. It takes 10minutes to finish the sightseeing.

When will the citizens of Suzhou be able to take a helicopter tour? Mr. Yong Lv,the chairman of Ruohang Group said that it is being consulting with the tourism bureau of Suzhou city. In the near future, citizens can pay ¥600 to ¥800 to take a flying tour to watch the Jinji Lake from above. He also said that some citizens of Suzhou have already scheduled the flying wedding service which will cost around 10million Chinese Yuan. This service contains application for air line,navigational matters,maintenance and field survey. These works are very important. The lack of one work will cause illegal operation.


The open of Suzhou heliport will not only promote the development of local tourism industry, but also promote the development of newly raised industries such as helicopter sales, maintenance, emergency rescue, and leasing.


Pay ¥360,000 minimum to ¥ 1,080,000 maximum to get a helicopter license.


The main business of Suzhou heliport is cultivating the pilot.

Yongqin Li is a business owner. He paid ¥1,080,000 to join the helicopter license training 1 year ago. Today he is in training now. 


Is it worth to pay ¥ 1,080,000 to get a helicopter license? Mr. Li said that luxury cars and yacht will no longer satisfy the rich. He thinks that the helicopter industry will increase further because of the government policy is getting better and better.

For 40 more training hours, Mr. Li can get the dream license. “Sooner I can find an aviation company and fly freely.”

There have been many people asking about the helicopter license before the heliport is open. Mrs. Gu, senior manager of Suzhou heliport said, “There are 2 kinds of helicopter licenses, private and commercial. To get a private license, you have to pass 40 flying hours’ training, and 150 flying hours for commercial license. Private licenses only allow personal flying. If you want to take pilot as a career, you will have to get the commercial license.” 

High investment brings high returns. The annual salary of a professional pilot is around ¥500,000 . It will only take 3years to get the training fee back.

Is a man with myopic eyes able to be a helicopter pilot? The answer is yes. The request for a helicopter pilot license is almost as the same as a driver’s license except for that your height must be over 1.65 m, your weight must be normal, no bone joint disease, naked vision over 0.3, no series disease.  

Helicopter rescue will cost only 1 hour to get to many places of Yangtze River Delta.

Helicopters are called “ambulance in the air”. As a modern vehicle, helicopters are suitable for personal transportation, official flying, forest protection, emergency rescue, riot security, communication reconnaissance, traffic management, Geological Survey and air photography. They are the most effective rescue vehicles widely used in many countries.

The training center of Emergency rescue association of Jiangsu province will be a fresh attempt to improve public service ability.


Mr. Tao Tian, vice-chairman of Emergency rescue association of Jiangsu province introduced, “As the air network of Yangtze River Delta is completed, there will be over 100 helicopters waiting to handle emergencies. ”

Mr. Yong Lv, chairman of Ruohang Group said, “There are dozens of flight platform in use. In emergency, a helicopter can directly fly to Nanjing in 1 hour, which greatly minimized the rescue time, raised the rescue efficiency. ”