=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/01/26/i= nternational0305EST0416.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, January 26, 2003 (AP) Taiwanese airline completes first charter flight to China in five decades ANNIE HUANG, Associated Press Writer (01-26) 00:05 PST TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- The first Taiwanese commercial flight to China in more than five decades completed its journey Sunday in a step toward ending a ban on direct travel between the two sides split by politics but linked by investment. Chinese and Taiwanese officials waved as the plane taxied down the runway at Shanghai's Pudong Airport before taking off on a gray and windy morning. A traditional Chinese lion dance was performed in celebration. About four hours later, the China Airlines jumbo jet landed at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek International Airport after a brief stopover in Hong Kong. The white and purple Boeing 747-400 -- with a pink plum blossom painted = on its tail fin -- carried 243 Taiwanese passengers home for the Lunar New Year holiday, the year's biggest celebration in ethnic Chinese societies. "Today's trip may be a short five hours ... but it is a first in history= ," said Wei Hsin-Hsiung, general manager of China Airlines, at a ceremony in Shanghai. Six Taiwanese carriers have permission to make the flights several times= a week through Feb. 9. The jets are required to stop briefly in Hong Kong or the Chinese territory of Macau. The main difference between the charter flights and the existing service is that passengers won't have to change planes in Hong Kong or Macau and board a foreign airline's flight to China. The stopover in Hong Kong or Macau should also be shorter, about 50 minutes, and the charter tickets are slightly cheaper. Taiwan banned direct air and sea links to the mainland after the two sid= es split in 1949 amid civil war. Despite the separation, Taiwanese investment in the mainland has surged since the island lifted a ban in the early 1990s on direct commercial ties. Taiwan estimates that $100 billion has been pumped into the Chinese economy. Thousands of Taiwanese live in China, many of them in Shanghai or on the southeastern coast. Taiwanese businesses have lobbied their government to lift the ban on direct travel, complaining of its added cost and inconvenience. Taiwan has been reluctant to allow direct travel across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait for fear of being dominated by its giant neighbor, which still threatens to attack the island. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP