First cross-strait weekend charter flight takes off

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-7-4  |     ONLINE EDITION

Tourists from Fujian Province pose in front of a Xiamen Airlines plane before taking the first weekend-chartered cross-strait flight to Taiwan this morning. The first group of 110 tourists will land at Songshan Airport in Taipei City. They will visit Taiwan for 10 days. More in photo gallery

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THE first cross-strait weekend chartered flight from China's mainland to Taiwan took off at 6:31am from Guangzhou, capital city of the southern Guangdong Province early this morning.

More than 100 mainland tourists aboard the Airbus A330 became the first group of people on a sight-seeing tour allowed to Taiwan amid warming cross-Strait ties. The flight has 258 passengers.

The historic flight by China Southern Airlines (CSA) is scheduled to land at Taipei Taoyuan Airport in Taiwan at 8:10 am after a 1,124-km journey.

"I have been expecting to visit Taiwan, the Treasure Island,and my dream will finally come true today," mainland tourist Shi Anwei told Xinhua before boarding the plane. "I was too excited to sleep last night."

A total of 760 mainland tourists across the country will start the unprecedented journey to Taiwan Friday and stay for 10 days.