The second runway at Pudong International Airport has opened today. Shanghai has become the first city in China with two commercial airports and three operational runways.

The 3800-meter landing strip will help increase the airport's capacity by 60%, allowing it to handle more than 300,000 flights a year.

It is also equipped with the most sophisticated blind landing system in the world, allowing planes to take off and land during days of heavy fog.

Pudong Airport officials say this runway is only the first project in the airport's Second Period Plan. Right now the second terminal is being built, and a third runway will be built before 2008.