The flight crew of Damxung Airport takes a group photo in the airport. [Photo/cpc.people.com.cn]

When tourists walk into the Konggar Airport in Lhasa for the first time, many will mistakenly assume that it is the first airport in Tibet. Actually, Tibet's first civil airport is not Konggar Airport, instead, it is the Damxung Airport in the Damxung County of Lhasa.

Built in 1955, the Damxung Airport was the world's highest airport at that time. Though, it has stepped down from the stage of history, it still created quite a stir of the period as a milestone.

"The condition of Damxung Airport was much far behind the Konggar Airport built in today. There was only a one-way take-off and landing aircraft runway, which needed repair every two or three days, as well as no departure hall and few aviation infrastructure," recalled Ngawang Lozan, local herdsman who had witnessed the construction of Damxung Airport.

It is recorded that due to the short supply in Tibet, it was unable to build a concert runway, and the building material can only be replaced with common stone. The whole runway covered a total length of 4,500 meters. Because of the bad weather, the great blowing wind and scattered stones always made it hard to land the airplane.