First Chinese Mainland Tour Groups To Taiwan By Cross-Straight Charter Flights

On July 4 the first Chinese mainland tour groups left for Taiwan on the initial cross-strait weekend charter flights.

There were 18 round-trip charter flights operated by 11 airlines from both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. The six Chinese mainland airlines – Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, and Shanghai Airlines – provided round-trip flights from Beijing, Shanghai (Pudong), Guangzhou, Xiamen, and Nanjing to Taipei Taoyuan and Taipei Songshan. Five Taiwanese airlines operated flights from Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hualien, and Penghu to these five designated destinations in mainland China.

Led by Shao Qiwei, president of the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, the first Chinese mainland tour groups to Taiwan consisted of sightseeing tour groups and tourism communication observation groups with a total of about 760 members from Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Fujian. Of these, 353 tourists departed from Beijing, and 100 from each of the other locations including Shanghai, Nanjing, Xiamen, and Guangzhou. These tour groups stayed for between seven to ten days in Taiwan.