Mainland and Taiwan started direct air and sea transport and postal services Mon

[2008-12-23 17:02:38]

Mainland and Taiwan started direct air and sea transport and postal services Monday morning
Tuesday,December 16,2008 Posted: 02:30 BJT(1830 GMT)
  From:xinhua    Article type:Redistributed


BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland and Taiwan started direct air and sea transport and postal services on Monday amid warming ties, ending a 59-year ban on such links.



Formerly, air and sea movements -- including mail -- had to go by way of a third place.



The direct air links will cut flight time significantly as planes are no longer required to fly through Hong Kong's airspace, a detour that the Taiwan authorities formerly insisted on citing security concerns.



It now takes 90 minutes, compared with two and half hours previously, to fly from Shanghai to Taipei because the distance has been shortened to 950 kilometers from 1,900 km, said Su Langen, an official with the mainland's Civil Aviation Administration of China.



Monday also marked the start of direct shipping and postal services across the 300-km-long, 150-km-wide Taiwan Strait which controls the seaway between China's north and south.



The mainland and Taiwan did not have direct express mail service in the past. Ordinary or registered mail from Taiwan to the mainland first went through the Hong Kong or Macao Special Administrative Regions, then to distribution centers in Beijing or Shanghai before it was delivered.



With the start of direct air and shipping services, Taiwan transport authorities estimated that the delivery time of ordinary letters from Taiwan to Beijing or Shanghai will be shortened to five to six days from the previous seven to eight days.



Source: 中华人民共和国商务部
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