Flights Begin From China to Taiwan

The first nonstop, cross-strait weekend flights from China landed in Taiwan on Friday morning, in the latest breakthrough in cross-strait relations that are rapidly warming under the island’s new president, Ma Ying-jeou.

The first batch of flights was expected to carry 662 Chinese tourists on package tours from five cities on the mainland, but that number is expected to expand gradually to as many as 3,000 tourists per day.

This is the first time that “ordinary” Chinese citizens will be allowed to visit Taiwan as tourists. Before, only Chinese citizens who were permanent residents of a foreign country, or those with special permission for business or cultural exchanges, could visit the island.