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Cross-Straits weekend charter flights begin

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-04 10:27

The first cross-Straits weekend charter flight from China's mainland to Taiwan landed at Taipei Taoyuan airport early Friday Morning.

The historic flight, which took off at 6:31 am from Guangzhou, capital city of China's southern Guangdong Province, arrived at about 8:10 am after a 1,124-km journey.

Tourists board the first direct chartered flight from Xiamen to Taiwan July 4, 2008. [Xinhua] Click for more photos

The China Southern Airlines flight, from the southern city of Guangzhou, is the first of 36 flights to be launched this weekend.

More than 100 mainland tourists aboard the Airbus A330 of China Southern Airlines (CSA) became the first group of people on a sight-seeing tour allowed to Taiwan amid warming cross-Straits ties.

Another four weekend chartered flights also took off Friday morning from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Xiamen respectively.

Related readings:  Cross-Straits weekend flights take off  Tourists to start Taiwan holiday  750 set to make trip to Taiwan  Taiwan's banks start renminbi services  Prices set for charter flights

Flight MF881 from Xiamen of southeastern China's Fujian Province, taking off at 7:16 am, has arrived at the Songshan Airport in Taipei.

A total of 760 mainland tourists across the mainland are on the unprecedented journey to Taiwan and will stay there for 10 days. They are all being given the red carpet treatment, with special receptions, dinners and entertainment programmes.

Their numbers are expected to rapidly increase to 3,000 tourists a day from July 18.

In Beijing, a ceremony was held in the morning for the launching of the cross-Strait weekend charter flights as well as the mainland tourists visiting Taiwan.

Wang Yi, director of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said that Friday marked a new beginning in the history of cross-Straits exchanges.

Cross-Straits relations are facing a hard-won development opportunity, and direct contacts between the compatriots on both sides must be beefed up to enhance their mutual understanding and achieve new progress in the peaceful development of cross-Straits ties, he said.The flight from Guangzhou marks the beginning of regular non-stop direct flights between a number of cities.