Mainlanders take the high road to Taiwan

By Lydia Chen and Winny Wang  |   2008-7-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

They're smiles ahead ... Lei Ming, 64, displays his postcards at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport yesterday before he embarks on the historic flight to Taiwan. Lei was among the first batch of 159 mainland tourists to visit the island departing from Shanghai. More in photo gallery

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HUNDREDS of mainland tourists arrived in Taiwan on chartered flights yesterday for the first time in almost six decades. The inaugural weekend chartered flights marked a historic step toward warming relations across the Taiwan Strait.

The first flight was by a China Southern Airlines plane, which took off from Guangzhou City at 6:31am with 256 passengers aboard. Carrier chairman Liu Shaoyong captained the Airbus A330 jet to touch down at Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan at 8:10am.

Shanghai Airlines sent the city's first weekend chartered flight to Taiwan at 8:50am with 159 passengers and it reached Songshan Airport at 11:50am. The airline provided Taiwan-style food during the trip.

Alex Lee, the new director of the Shanghai Association of Taiwan Businessmen Invested Enterprises, was the first check-in passenger for the flight.

"I am looking forward to real direct flights between the mainland and Taiwan which can save time, fuel costs and personal expenses," Lee said.

The mainland and Taiwan will discuss direct flights across the Strait "as soon as possible" but before that all chartered flights will have to fly over Hong Kong.

"The mainland has prepared for real direct flights and we have set up preparation offices in Taiwan," said Fan Hongxi, president of Shanghai Airlines.

"It will only take just over anhour to fly from Shanghai to Taiwan without a detour in Hong Kong, and the ticket price will be lowered at that time," Fan said.

Yesterday's flights carried 760 tourists from five cities of the mainland - Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing - on 10-day package tours.

Shen Qiren, a 76-year-old Shanghai native, yesterday took a flight at 2pm from Pudong International Airport to Taiwan on a trip he described may be his last chance to see his foster mother.