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Cheers for Taiwan-China flight
SHANGHAI, China -- In a step towards direct air links now banned between China and Taiwan, a Taiwan commercial flight landed in Shanghai on Sunday -- the first to arrive in the communist nation in more than 50 years. The China Airlines Boeing 747-400 is the first of 16 charter flights to help get Taiwan citizens home for the Lunar New Year holidays, which begin on February 1. The plane left Shanghai late morning carrying 243 passengers, its arrival and departure toasted by Taiwan airline executives, Chinese government officials and other dignitaries. "This is a breakthrough in cross-strait relations," Shanghai Vice Mayor Han Zheng was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "Like most Taiwan investors in Shanghai, we hope that the day of direct flights will come soon." Direct air links between Taiwan and China have been severed since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, so the plane will touch down in Hong Kong. But unlike the normal route from China to Taiwan, passengers will not have to change planes and will arrive in Taipei in four hours, not five.
Both Taiwan and China have called for direct air links, but Taipei has held off for security reasons. Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has threatened to use force if the self-governing island declares independence. Yet despite the struggling cross-strait relations, Taiwan businesses have invested around $100 billion on the mainland and an estimated one million Taiwan citizens have moved to China. Taiwan's population is just over 22 million. About 300,000 Taiwan citizens are expected to go home for this year's Lunar New Year holiday. China has allowed six Taiwan carriers -- China Airlines, Far Eastern Air Transport Corp, EVA Airways, UNI Airways, Mandarin Airlines and TransAsia Airways to make the charter flights. Return flights to Shanghai, China's commercial hub, will hit the skyways from February 5 to 9. Reuters contributed to this report.
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