On the first day of the operation, a total of 753 Chinese people, including 622 tourists, 31 officials and 60 news reporters and photographers, arrived in Taiwan on nine flights from China.

There were also Taiwanese business persons and tourists aboard the flights returning home here.

The first flight, a China Southern Airlines plane carrying 230 passengers, touched down at Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan in early morning, and fire trucks shot water at it in a welcome gesture.

“From today onward, regular commercial flights will replace the rumbling warplanes over the skies of the Taiwan Strait, and relations between the two sides will become better and better,” said Liu Shaoyong, chairman of the Chinese airline, after the 90-minute flight from Guangzhou in southern China.

Liu, a pilot with 30 years of flying experience, personally piloted the Airbus jet for the maiden flight.

Liu said he and the tourists were overwhelmed by the extremely warm Taiwanese hospitality.

However, the passenger who first completed customs clearance and walked out of the airport terminal was not a Chinese tourist but Taiwanese businessmen Yu Shih-liang aboard Liu’s plane for the home trip.

With broad smiles, Yu had the national flags of both the Republic of China here and the People’s Republic of China on the Chinese mainland on each side of his luggage trolley.

Yu, who has been doing business for years in Guangzhou, said the convenient direct flights will allow him to take more home trips in the future.

Top visiting official

Shao Qiwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration, was the most senior Chinese official on the inaugural weekend direct cross-strait charter flights to Taiwan.

Arriving with other Chinese tourism officials, reporters, and tourists on the maiden flight, Shao is visiting Taiwan in his capacity as president of the Beijing-based Cross Strait Tourism Exchange Association.

Shao was met upon his arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport by his Taiwanese counterpart — Janice Lai, director general of the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

Lai plays host for Shao and other Chinese officials in her capacity as president of the Taipei-based Tourism and Travel Association Across the Taiwan Strait.

In a short speech delivered at the airport, Shao offered his appreciation to people from both Taiwan and China who have made efforts to make the launch of the weekend direct cross-strait charter flights possible.

He expressed the hope that the July 4-7 historic flights will mark a good beginning for smooth tourism operations across the Taiwan Strait in the future.

Before boarding an Air China flight from Beijing,

Shao said the regular flights will “build a bridge of friendship” with Taiwan’s 23 million “hospitable compatriots.”

“The start of mainland tourists... will create a scenic route across the strait,” Shao said at the Beijing airport, referring to the Taiwan Strait.

Shao visited Taiwan before. He last visited Taiwan in late October 2005 at the invitation of the Taiwan Visitors Association.

Daily straight flights

Ruling Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung was among those welcoming incoming Chinese tourists and returning Chinese passengers at the Taipei Songshan Airport.

He hoped the service would be offered on a regular daily basis in the future soon.

One of the passengers aboard the China Eastern Airlines flight from Nanjing was Buddhist Master Hsin Yun, who was returning to Kaohsiung, where he founded the Foguangshan Buddhism Center that has been listed as one of the “musts” on many Chinese tourists’ itineraries.

Hsin Yun said he came to Taiwan from Nanjing area 60 years ago by boat. But he now can take direct flights to both places without detours via other transit stopovers.

Noting that Nanjing — where the Republic of China’s founding father Sun Yat-sen is buried — is a historically important city, Wu extended his personal appreciation to the people, the government and private sectors, and China Eastern Airlines for making the service possible.

“We hope the launch of direct nonstop flights across the Taiwan Strait will enhance the understanding of the people of both sides, through which Chinese tourists will soon discover how nice we as Taiwanese are,” Wu said.

“I am sure this is a very important step for future peaceful development between Taiwan and mainland China,” he noted, adding that he hoped the weekend charter flights will soon be turned into regular services.

The direct cross-strait air services were made possible by an agreement signed by Taiwan and China in Beijing on June 13.

But according to the deal, 36 round-trip nonstop charters will fly between cities in Taiwan and China every Friday to Monday.

The charters must all fly through Hong Kong or Macau airspace before heading for their destinations because of Taiwan’s security concerns.

Wu, however, said he hoped that in the future, the two sides can straighten out the problem by so that flights could follow straighter paths to their destinations.

Ding --inguo, vice general manager of Shanghai Airlines who piloted his airline’s maiden flight from Shanghai to Songshan, agreed with Wu, saying shorter routes would make the passengers more comfortable and save the airlines money.

‘Historic moment’

Cabinet spokeswoman Vanessa Yea-ping Shih said the smooth launch of direct weekend charter flights “marked a historic moment,” adding that “today is just a beginning.”

She hoped opening Taiwan to more Chinese tourists will enhance Taiwan’s tourism infrastructure and quality of service.

The ultimate goal, she said, is to attract more foreign tourists to Taiwan.

In the future, Taiwan and China will continue to discuss shortening flight routes and easing travel limits through their intermediary bodies — Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), Shih noted.

The two sides will also continue to hold negotiations on easing restrictions on financial regulations and opening economic policies across the Taiwan Strait, Shih added.

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan expressed his satisfaction and appreciation to Cabinet officials for their efforts to make the weekend charter flights and more Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan a reality, she said.

In addition, Shih said that four reporters of China’s --inhua News Agency and People’s Daily had arrived in Taiwan via the flights.

Their arrival came days after the Cabinet announced its decision to lift a more than three-year ban on these two Chinese state-run media outlets posting journalists in Taiwan. The ban was imposed by the preceding government.

The Cabinet also has decided to allow an additional five regional Chinese media organizations to post reporters in Taiwan. So far, a news group in Shanghai as well as four television stations in Fujian, --iamen, Shenzhen and Guangdong have inquired about application details, according to Shih.

‘New start’

The resumption of regular direct air services after six decades marked a “new start” in relations between mainland China and Taiwan, said Wang Yi, director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, in Beijing.

“Today is a new start in the history of exchanges between the two sides,” he said.

Wang said the tourists on board the flights brought “profound friendship to the people of Taiwan.”

“At present, cross Strait relations are facing a rare opportunity for development,” Wang said.

“We must increase direct exchanges between people on both sides of the Strait and also increase mutual understanding.”

The ties between the two rivals across the Taiwan Strait have improved markedly since the election of Ma Ying-jeou as new president by Taiwanese voters.

Ma, who has abandoned the pro-independence rhetoric of his predecessor Chen Shui-bian that infuriated China, is pushing ahead on more pragmatic issues for the well-being of the people by shelving more controversial problems.

New aims

The new government led by Ma aims to eventually extend the weekend-only flights to a daily service to help turn Taiwan into a transport hub in Asia as well as prop up the island’s economy.

The plan was stalled by Chen for eight years.

For upcoming talks with Beijing, officials here will also push for the inauguration of direct cargo flight service and straighten the flight routes to save time and fuel costs.

Allowing passenger gets to carry certain cargoes on the plane will help reduce the people’s financial burden, they believe.

Thousands of Taiwanese have invested in China, setting up high-tech, textile and other factories to take advantage of lower labor costs.

In recent weeks, Taiwan has taken a number of other initiatives that could help economic integration of the two sides, including currency exchanges with the mainland and easing control on mutual funds investing in China-listed stocks.