Workers assemble the keel of an airship in the airship base located in Inner Mongolia’s Alxa League on August 22. [Photo by Liu Yide/Xinhua]

China's airship base, located in the desert of Alxa League in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was put into operation last February. The base is 276 hectares and has a planned investment of 5 billion yuan ($813 million). To date, it has completed investment totaling 1.8 billion yuan. Infrastructure construction, including a big boat house, a landing field of 640,000 square meters, a command and control center, and an R&D center, has been finished. The airship base will manufacture four different types of airships this year.

An airship is a kind of aero vehicle that can be repeatedly used. It can stay in the air by buoyancy and utilize solar energy. This aero vehicle has wide applications in land resource monitoring, environment monitoring, disaster relief and rescue, and city planning and management.