Ma's election victory cheers Taiwanese in Shanghai

By Charlie Zhu

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Earlier this month, Shanghai-based Taiwan businessman Bangji Tsai bought an apartment in Taipei, betting Taiwan opposition party candidate Ma Ying-jeou would win the presidential election and housing prices would go up.

Ma won in a landslide on Saturday, promising to lift a ban on direct flights between China and Taiwan in place since defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island at the end of the civil war with the Communists in 1949.

That has cheered the estimated half a million Taiwanese who live in and around China's commercial capital of Shanghai and have long been frustrated by the flight ban.

"We didn't go back to vote this time because the children had to go to school and we were confident Ma Ying-jeou would win," Tsai said as he and his family gathered around a large television screen at their Shanghai home, watching the election.

"We are very glad because direct flights are becoming much more likely now. My Taiwan friends just called me from Guangzhou after hearing the results. They were so excited that I could feel they were jumping up and down," Tsai's wife, Jenny, added.

To get back to Taiwan, they have to fly via a third destination, such as Hong Kong or Macau, turning a journey that should take just over an hour into a half-day ordeal.

Although Ma and the Democratic Progressive Party candidate, Frank Hsieh, both vowed to seek direct flights between China and Taiwan, mainland-based Taiwan businessmen believe Ma will make it more likely to happen.

"Ma is more China friendly. China would also be much more willing to work with Ma on the issue," Tsai said.

The Nationalist Party's Ma has long advocated closer economic ties and political dialogue with China, which claims Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Herbert Chang, another Taiwan businessman based in Shanghai, said he expected more Taiwan professionals would move to mainland China if the ban on direct flights were lifted, and that would further invigorate Taiwan businesses in China.

"More Taiwanese professionals such as engineers would come to China to work at Taiwanese-run factories because direct flights would allow them to visit their Taiwan families more often," Chang said.

"Many of them can't come to work in the mainland at the moment because their wives are concerned. If they can go home once in a while, their wives would say yes, I guess," he said.

Despite the ban on direct flights and frosty political relations, economic ties are close. Taiwan investors have poured about $100 billion into China, lured by lower labor costs, a booming economy and a common language and culture.

(Editing by Ben Blanchard and Myra MacDonald)