An Air China charter flight carrying 110 teenage Chinese earthquake victims left Beijing on Thursday for Russia, where they were promised a 21-day recuperative vacation.
They were among 1,570 primary and middle school students invited by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to experience Russia. The trip was expected to help heal their earthquake trauma.
Zhu Mei, an Air China spokeswoman, said the flight was destined for Vladivostok in Russia's far east.
The company would have five further such charters to pick up students at airports in the western Chinese cities of Xi'an and Lanzhou to several designated Russian cities for vacation.
(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2008)