Qatar Airways has touched down in down in Hangzhou, the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in eastern China.

Hangzhou is the airline’s seventh route in China, and is preceded by Chengdu, which was introduced to the airline’s route network in September last year.

The new Hangzhou–Doha flight will be operated four times a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

An Airbus A330 will be operated on the route in a two-class configuration featuring 24 seats in Business Class and 236 seats in Economy.

“As a route, Hangzhou has strong potential when linked with key destinations in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Africa; now all easily accessible via Doha through a convenient non-stop flight,” said Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker.

“China’s outbound tourism has been growing rapidly in the past decade, and we look forward to bringing more passengers from and to Hangzhou, helping to further boost leisure and business travel in China.”

Hangzhou is an important economic and tourist centre for China.

It was named the second best city for doing business in China, according to Forbes 2012.

It is also one of the most prosperous cities in terms of GDP per capita income.

The new route is the airline’s seventh destination in the country, with services to other cities in mainland China, including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and also Hong Kong.