By Ralph Jennings and Sophie Taylor
TAIPEI/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Historic regular flightsbetween Taiwan and China began on Friday, in a show ofconciliation between the long-time rivals that could bringlarge 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 insouthern China early in the morning.
It was followed a short time later by a flight from thesouthern city of Xiamen that arrived at Taipei's Songshan cityairport. Flights from China will be leaving from a number ofcities, including Shanghai.
No such regular flights, aside from a few charters onselect holidays, have flown since 1949, when defeatedNationalist forces fled to Taiwan after the Chinese civil war.
The flights are largely the work of new Taiwan President MaYing-jeou, who took office in May on pledges to revitalise theisland'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 raftof other reforms as well, many designed to make it easier forTaiwanese to invest in China's financial and other markets.
The recent cross-Strait detente contrasts sharply with thetension of only 11 years ago when missiles were splashing intothe Taiwan Strait.
The flights represent the first of a step-by-step approachto improve ties but trickier issues remain, such as a peacetreaty and the hundreds of missiles Taiwan says China has aimedat the island.
China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and hasvowed to bring the island under its rule.
For the moment, though, both sides are keen to capitaliseon the goodwill generated by the flights.
At Taipei's Songshan airport, passengers on the firstflight were greeted by a throng of local media, along with awelcoming ceremony complete with dragon dancers.
"It's so convenient to get here. Since I was very young Ialways wanted to go to Alishan," said Wang Qi, a 40-year-oldChinese tourist on the Xiamen flight, referring to Taiwan'smost 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 anairline counter banner reading "Welcome to Shanghai Airlines'cross-Strait weekend charter flights" marked the departure of amorning flight filled with mostly Taiwanese returning home.
The flights were not without some controversy, as a groupof about a dozen Tibet independence activists shouting "Welcometo free Taiwan" protested outside the airport over Beijing'srecent crackdown in Tibetan regions of China.
Representatives of the Fulun Gong spiritual movement,banned by China as a cult, were also expected to organisedemonstrations outside famous tourist spots for mainlandtourists.
Enthusiasm about an expected boom in cross-Strait tourismhelped to push up the tourism index by nearly 3 percent inearly Friday trade in Taiwan, even as the broader market fell.
Negotiators from China and Taiwan agreed last month to theFriday to Monday "weekend" flights. They also decided to let asmany as 3,000 Chinese tourists a day visit the island, whichhas viewed them as a security risk but now wants their money.
The 36 round trips per week will eliminate time-consumingHong Kong or Macau stopovers for Taiwanese, about 1 million ofwhom live on the mainland. But they will still fly a roundaboutroute through Hong Kong air space for security reasons.
The flights are expected to hurt Hong Kong's airlines, mostnotably Cathay Pacific, and to help Taiwan's China Airlines andChina's China Eastern, though the shift in travel patternsshould be gradual.
In Beijing, tourism and government officials gave speechesbefore the departure of an Air China flight with 294 passengersbound for Taiwan.
"Today is a new start in the history of exchanges betweenthe two sides," said Wang Yi, director of China's TaiwanAffairs Office, which oversees Taiwan relations. "At present,cross-Strait relations are facing a rare opportunity fordevelopment," he said
Twelve airlines, eight Taiwan airports and numerous travelagents have scrambled over the past month to prepare forFriday's flights, which ply between Taiwan and the Chinesecities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai and Xiamen.
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Ben Blanchard inBeijing; Editing by David Fogarty)
