| Passengers from southeast China's Taiwan gesture before boarding the plane at the airport in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Dec. 15, 2008. A Shenzhen Airlines flight took off from the Shenzhen Airport for Taiwan at 7:20 Beijing Time (2320 GMT Dec. 14), the first when the Chinese mainland and Taiwan started direct air and sea transport and postal services Monday morning.(Xinhua Photo) |
The move marks an end to the practice that air and sea transport as well as mail between the mainland and Taiwan had to go through a third place.
At 7:20 a.m., a mainland-based Shenzhen Airlines flight took off from the Shenzhen Airport for Taiwan. Forty minutes later, another mainland flight left Shanghai for the island.
Direct shipping transport and postal services across the Taiwan trait also started Monday.