Chinese dragon dancers perform as passengers board a China Eastern flight bound for Taipei at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai.

Starting with China Southern Airlines, six planes from the mainland touched down one after another at Taipei's international airport, becoming the first Chinese planes to land on Taiwan's soil since 1949.

The six mainland airlines are authorized to serve four charter flights each between Jan. 29 and Feb. 20 to shuttle Taiwan businessmen and their families home for the Lunar New Year holidays.

Six Taiwanese airlines are authorized to offer the same service.

Taipei had banned direct flights on security grounds and insists the special charters fly through Hong Kong or Macau airspace. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and threatens to invade if the democratic island declares formal independence.

An estimated 1 million of Taiwan's people, or 5 percent of its population, work or live in China and must normally transit through places such as Hong Kong when traveling between the two sides.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 5, 2005
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