in September to 72% in January, the city receives 2,367 hours of bright sunshine annually. Transportation Xichang Railway Station (西昌站) is a main station on the Chengdu–Kunming railway. Construction of a fast express train line has been completed, and has considerably shortenened travelling times to Panzhihua, Chengdu and Guangyuan. There are also some other stations in the city, including the Xichang North railway station and Xichang South railway station. The city possesses its own airport, Xichang Qingshan Airport, which is attached to the spaceport by a railroad line and a motorway directly. Xichang lies on the G5 Beijing–Kunming Expressway. Spaceport Xichang's spaceport is located about northwest of the city and went into operation in 1984. Communications satellites are the most common payload to be inserted into orbit from the Xichang spaceport. Explanatory notes References Citations General and cited references . . . . (Congressional report discussing Intelsat 708 launch failure and possible technology transfer) (Documents on Intelsat 708 and export controls, including State Department letter charging two companies with export law violations) (Article on the crash of a rocket carrying a commercial payload on February 15, 1996) External links https://web.archive.org/web/20050129090651/http://www.astronautix.com/sites/xichang.htm http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/world/china/xichang.htm "A World Away from Beijing", by Ross Terrill. The New York Times, December 20, 1987. County-level cities in Sichuan Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture National Forest Cities in China