LEAD: China, Taiwan launch direct flights, tourism links

Asian Economic News, July 7, 2008

TAIPEI, July 4 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

China and Taiwan on Friday launched landmark direct flights and tourism links, reversing nearly 60-year-old bans on such links amid warming ties between the long-time political rivals.

More than 600 Chinese visitors began to arrive on the island in the morning on the first wave of regularly scheduled direct charter flights.

Some 2,400 more visitors from China are expected to follow over the next three days on the so-called ''weekend charter flights,'' which actually run from Friday to Monday.

The first of some 3,100 Taiwanese also began arriving in China on the flights.

''This is a historical moment in relations across the Taiwan Strait,'' Taiwanese Transportation Minister Mao Chih-kuo said Thursday.

Among the more than two dozen tour groups from China to arrive in Taiwan on Friday was the largest ever official Chinese delegation to the island. The officials, led by Shao Qiwei, chairman of the China National Tourism Administration, will conduct a weeklong ''fact-finding'' tour.

''We are joining together with our industry partners in Taiwan to foster a win-win situation for cross-strait tourism,'' Shao told reporters after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport outside Taipei.

At Taipei's Songshan Airport, Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration's director general, Chang Kuo-cheng, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the boarding gate for a direct morning flight to Shanghai.

''When we celebrate like this again,'' he said, ''it'll be for daily charter flights.''

China and Taiwan lacked direct air links as a remnant of their historical enmity, which stems from their split amid civil war in 1949. Since then, Beijing has claimed Taipei as its own, vowing to attack the self-ruled island should it formalize the split.

Taiwan, for its part, insists on safeguarding its de facto sovereignty and resists efforts by Beijing to bring the island under its political fold.

Despite lingering political friction, cross-strait ties have warmed dramatically since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office May 20 after vowing to establish direct air, shipping and tourism links with Beijing. Ma seeks to gradually shift from the four-days-a-week flights to daily flights by next year.

For local boy-band celebrity Will Liu, the charter flights are a godsend to his budding career in China, where he has a growing fan base and travels weekly.

''I've been waiting for this day for a long, long time,'' said the singer while waiting to board the Shanghai-bound flight at Songshan Airport.

Friday was also a milestone for cross-strait tourism, which mostly stalled amid bans by Taipei on incoming Chinese vacationers. Citing security concerns, the island had required mainland tourists to arrive via a third country as a means to keep their numbers down.

By July 18, Ma seeks to allow in up to 3,000 mainland visitors daily as a gesture of goodwill to Beijing and a bid to reinvigorate the island's economy.

The weekend flights, for their part, will number 36 round-trip flights every Friday to Monday, and will be operated equally by Chinese and Taiwanese airlines between eight destinations on Taiwan and five mainland cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

Previously, direct charter flights, for mainly Taiwanese nationals, were allowed only on holidays and for medical emergencies.

Arriving at Songshan at around 9 a.m., a Xiamen Air flight was hosed down by fire trucks on the tarmac in celebration, while passengers were received with a welcoming ceremony at the departure gate.

''I feel like I've come home because people on both sides of the strait are one big family,'' said the flight's Chinese captain, Shen Zhiqun.

Similar welcoming ceremonies marked the arrival of the other tour groups on nine incoming flights to Taipei. Outgoing flights, from Taiwan's Songshan, Taoyuan and Kaohsiung airports, also numbered nine.