A company in South China is trying to sell Chairman Mao Zedong's plane for 8 million yuan ($1.29 million).

Ridong Group Company claims its Trident passenger plane was in service for Mao's trips and more than a decade afterwards.

Decommissioned in 1986, the plane was bought "through relationships" in the 1990s as Ridong hoped to make it into a tourist attraction.

Made in the United Kingdom and imported with two other planes from Pakistan in 1969, today the plane sits in Ridong Square in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.

Twenty years on, the square is now a core urban area, with busy traffic.

A parking lot will replace the plane after it is moved, said Wang Zhilei, assistant to the company's chairman.

If unsold, the plane will be scrapped in May.

Ridong also tried to sell the plane in 2008, with no takers.

Wang hopes government authorities might buy the plane, but so far there has been no response beyond occasional inquiries into evidence of its authenticity.

Beijing Times