China is planning to build over 500 new airports by 2020 as part of the latest plan to boost the country's general aviation industry to 1 trillion yuan ($153 billion), according to new guidelines released on Tuesday.

Beijing is targeting to increase the number of small airports to more than 500 in four years. The airports will be situated in many unconventional sites, including agricultural and forest locations and more than half of the five scenic tourists places.

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Moreover, the country's fleet of general aircraft is also expected to increase to over 5,000 within the same period, including small planes, private jets, and helicopters.

Under the new guidelines, the government will also allocate some airspace for general aviation aircrafts, since the airspace has long been under the control of the military. Also, flight approval will be more organized. Furthermore, civil aircraft will be allowed to operate in airspace below 3,000 meters, compared with the current 1,000 meters, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Acknowledging the country's poor airspace management, Chinese officials believe boosting efforts to enhancing the general aviation sector will increase China's economic development and tourism as well.

At the end of 2015, China had over 300 airports, 281 enterprises and 1,874 aircrafts, with total flying time reaching more than 730,000 hours in 2015.

With the addition of new airports, overall yearly flying time could reach 2 million hours, according to China Daily.

Aside from the aviation industry, the Chinese government has allocated some 4.7 trillion yuan ($723.8 billion) to aggressively improve the country's infrastructure within three years. There are plans to develop China's transportation network, with 300 railway, highway, waterway projects set to be commissioned.

All these planned improvements will take advantage of reforms designed to stop China's economic slowdown.

Tagsaviation industry, aircraft, china, economic slowdown, economic development