Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200807/20080704/article_365646.htm
Mainland tourists arrive on historic flights to Taiwan
Created: 2008-7-4 16:54:25, Updated: 2008-7-4 17:01:24
Author:Lydia Chen
HUNDREDS of mainland tourists arrived in Taiwan today on the first regular weekend chartered flights in nearly six decades, marking a historic step toward a warming of relationships across the Strait.
The first of the flights, a China Southern Airlines plane, touched down at Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan at 8:10am. The plane, with 230 passengers on board, took off from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province at 6:31am.
The Airbus A330 was soon followed by a flight from the southern city of Xiamen that arrived at Taipei's Songshan city airport.
Shanghai Airlines flew in with the city's first weekend chartered flight landing at Taipei's Songshan Airport at 11:50am.
Today's flights carried 760 tourists from five mainland cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing on 10-day package tours to the island.
Shen Qiren, a 76-year-old from Shanghai, boarded a flight at 2pm at Pudong International Airport to head for Taiwan, a trip he said might be the last chance he has to see his foster mother. Mainland visitors have been banned from visiting the island for the past six decades.
"She raised me until I was 12 and then she went to Taiwan. I haven't seen her since," Shen said.
"I have always wanted to visit her and I signed up for a tour as soon as I learned about the opening-up of Taiwan tourism," Shen said.
The mainland visitors like Shen were greeted by groups of reporters, local officials, traditional dragon dances and sprays of water from fire trucks as they walked smiling through an archway of colored balloons.
The weekend flights was "a new start in the history of exchanges," Wang Yi, director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which oversees Taiwan relations, said this morning.
"At present, cross-Strait relations have a rare opportunity for development," Wang said at the ceremony, which was broadcast live on China Central Television, before the departure of an Air China flight with 294 passengers bound for Taiwan.
"Direct contact between compatriots from both sides must be encouraged to enhance mutual understanding and enhance the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties," Wang added.
The Chinese mainland and Taiwan signed a landmark deal last month for regular weekend flights and approved up visits to the island by to 3,000 mainland travelers every day.
The deal, agreed in the first official talks between the mainland and Taiwan since 1999, includes 36 return flights each week on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The number can increase according to demand. Six mainland airlines and five from Taiwan are involved.
The agreement allows millions of mainland travelers to visit Taiwan which may boost the island's economy. The island's forecast economic growth is for 4.8 percent this year.
Apart from special holidays, there have been no regular direct flights across the Taiwan Strait since 1949. Passengers and freight between the two sides have had to pass through a third port such as Hong Kong or Macau. About 1 million Taiwanese are now thought to be living in the mainland.
The weekend chartered flights still have to fly a roundabout route through Hong Kong air space.
Negotiators from the mainland and Taiwan said they will try to settle the issue of direct flights as soon as possible, according to a minute of talks signed by Chen Yunlin, chairman of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and Chiang Pin-kun, chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation last month.
"I am looking forward to proper direct flights between the mainland and Taiwan, which will save time, fuel and expense," said Alex Lee, the new director of the Taiwan Merchant Association of Shanghai. Lee was the first check-in passenger for the first weekend chartered flight from Shanghai today.
The first of the flights, a China Southern Airlines plane, touched down at Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan at 8:10am. The plane, with 230 passengers on board, took off from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province at 6:31am.
The Airbus A330 was soon followed by a flight from the southern city of Xiamen that arrived at Taipei's Songshan city airport.
Shanghai Airlines flew in with the city's first weekend chartered flight landing at Taipei's Songshan Airport at 11:50am.
Today's flights carried 760 tourists from five mainland cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing on 10-day package tours to the island.
Shen Qiren, a 76-year-old from Shanghai, boarded a flight at 2pm at Pudong International Airport to head for Taiwan, a trip he said might be the last chance he has to see his foster mother. Mainland visitors have been banned from visiting the island for the past six decades.
"She raised me until I was 12 and then she went to Taiwan. I haven't seen her since," Shen said.
"I have always wanted to visit her and I signed up for a tour as soon as I learned about the opening-up of Taiwan tourism," Shen said.
The mainland visitors like Shen were greeted by groups of reporters, local officials, traditional dragon dances and sprays of water from fire trucks as they walked smiling through an archway of colored balloons.
The weekend flights was "a new start in the history of exchanges," Wang Yi, director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which oversees Taiwan relations, said this morning.
"At present, cross-Strait relations have a rare opportunity for development," Wang said at the ceremony, which was broadcast live on China Central Television, before the departure of an Air China flight with 294 passengers bound for Taiwan.
"Direct contact between compatriots from both sides must be encouraged to enhance mutual understanding and enhance the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties," Wang added.
The Chinese mainland and Taiwan signed a landmark deal last month for regular weekend flights and approved up visits to the island by to 3,000 mainland travelers every day.
The deal, agreed in the first official talks between the mainland and Taiwan since 1999, includes 36 return flights each week on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The number can increase according to demand. Six mainland airlines and five from Taiwan are involved.
The agreement allows millions of mainland travelers to visit Taiwan which may boost the island's economy. The island's forecast economic growth is for 4.8 percent this year.
Apart from special holidays, there have been no regular direct flights across the Taiwan Strait since 1949. Passengers and freight between the two sides have had to pass through a third port such as Hong Kong or Macau. About 1 million Taiwanese are now thought to be living in the mainland.
The weekend chartered flights still have to fly a roundabout route through Hong Kong air space.
Negotiators from the mainland and Taiwan said they will try to settle the issue of direct flights as soon as possible, according to a minute of talks signed by Chen Yunlin, chairman of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and Chiang Pin-kun, chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation last month.
"I am looking forward to proper direct flights between the mainland and Taiwan, which will save time, fuel and expense," said Alex Lee, the new director of the Taiwan Merchant Association of Shanghai. Lee was the first check-in passenger for the first weekend chartered flight from Shanghai today.
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