Historic China-Taiwan flights take off

By Ralph Jennings and Sophie Taylor

TAIPEI/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Historic regular flights between Taiwan and China began on Friday, in a show of conciliation between the long-time rivals that could bring large numbers of mainland Chinese visitors to the island.

The first of the flights, a China Southern Airlines plane, landed at Taipei's Taoyuan airport after leaving Guangzhou in southern China early in the morning.

It was followed a short time later by a flight from the southern city of Xiamen that arrived at Taipei's Songshan city airport. Flights from China will be leaving from a number of cities, including Shanghai.

No such regular flights, aside from a few charters on select holidays, have flown since 1949, when defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after the Chinese civil war.

The flights are largely the work of new Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, who took office in May on pledges to revitalize the island's economy with closer trade and transit ties to China. He has estimated that 50 million Chinese want to visit Taiwan.

Since Ma took office, his government has introduced a raft of other reforms as well, many designed to make it easier for Taiwanese to invest in China's financial and other markets.

The recent cross-Strait detente contrasts sharply with the tension of only 11 years ago when missiles were splashing into the Taiwan Strait.

The flights represent the first of a step-by-step approach to improve ties but trickier issues remain, such as a peace treaty and the hundreds of missiles Taiwan says China has aimed at the island.

China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and has vowed to bring the island under its rule.

For the moment, though, both sides are keen to capitalize on the goodwill generated by the flights.

At Taipei's Songshan airport, passengers on the first flight were greeted by a throng of local media, along with a welcoming ceremony complete with dragon dancers.

"It's so convenient to get here. Since I was very young I always wanted to go to Alishan," said Wang Qi, a 40-year-old Chinese tourist on the Xiamen flight, referring to Taiwan's most famous mountain. "So today I feel very happy and warm."

Wang was one of 109 tourists, all wearing pink T-shirts, who came on the first flight to Taipei for a 10-day stay.

PROTESTS

The pageantry was lower key at Pudong airport in Shanghai, home to China's largest Taiwanese community, where only an airline counter banner reading "Welcome to Shanghai Airlines' cross-Strait weekend charter flights" marked the departure of a morning flight filled with mostly Taiwanese returning home.